Tramon Williams photo

Tramon Williams had 41 tackles, one tackle for a loss, two interceptions, a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries and 11 pass breakups while playing 73.2 percent of the Packers' defensive snaps last season.

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GREEN BAY — Tramon Williams was still back home in Houston — instead of boarding a flight bound for Austin Straubel International Airport — on Monday morning, but the veteran cornerback hasn’t given up hope of playing one more NFL season, which he hopes is with the Green Bay Packers.

As the Packers’ rookies reported to Lambeau Field for COVID-19 testing and veteran players continued to arrive in town in advance of Tuesday’s official reporting date, Williams was standing outside of his local gym, getting ready to work out on his own before heading home to do what he’s gotten do to a lot of this offseason — spend more time with his wife, Shantrell, and the couple’s two children, son Tramon Jr. and daughter Trinity.

But while he still has concerns about the perils the coronavirus pandemic could present him and his family, the 37-year-old Williams is confident he will play football in 2020, despite his admitted reservations.

“It’s a high percentage. I would say maybe 90 percent,” Williams said during an appearance on ESPN Wisconsin Monday morning. “I’ve got to finish it.”

Still unsigned after having his two-year deal with the Packers expired in March — an inexpensive reunion that had been good for both sides and brought him back to the team with which he’d risen to stardom from 2007 through 2014 — Williams said he and the Packers haven’t spoken for awhile but that he is of the belief that the team would like to bring him back, even though that hasn’t happened yet.

“I haven’t talked to the Packers in awhile, but I’ve been staying in shape, spending time with my family. That’s the new normal — that’s all you can do right now,” Williams said. “That is a possibility — that (the Packers) want me back. I will say that. I haven’t had much contact with them lately, but I have spoken to some people who relayed the message that they would love to have me back. So yeah, I think they want me back.

“But obviously, there’s a lot of things that have to happen with that. I mean, everything that’s going on in the world right now with the pandemic, I passed up on different opportunities earlier because it’s hard to commit to something that you really don’t know is going to be going on. Technically, we didn’t know if football would be going on — and truthfully, we still don’t know what’s going to happen. With all that’s going on right now, there’s a lot of uncertainty, to make decisions like that. So I wasn’t going to make a decision early in the offseason with anyone.

“To put it on record, I never retired. I heard that, but I never retired. But my family was a big priority of what I wanted to do in the offseason and those things kind of seemed to work themselves out due to everything continuing to be canceled.”

Williams, who coaches both his kids on their various sports teams (particularly track and field), said “spending time with my kids this offseason was a priority for me. Doing things with them, doing things for them was the priority for me, so that’s pretty much what I focused on all offseason.”

Williams wasn’t clear on whether that priority was another reason why he turned down overtures from other teams looking for defensive back help, as the coronavirus outbreak spread just as unrestricted free agency was ramping up in mid-March. As it turned out, all 32 NFL teams had to take their offseason programs into the virtual realm because of the virus, meaning players were able to work from home and participate in team meetings and workouts via video conferences.

Asked what has to happen in order for him to return, Williams replied, “Obviously health is always No. 1. I wake up this morning to updates on my phone of baseball, they’ve got positive tests like crazy (with the Miami Marlins). So you have those concerns. How are they going to really protect you? It’s not a true bubble in the NFL like it is with the NBA. So a lot of things have to take place.

“Obviously, if they decided they wanted me, I definitely would be committed wholeheartedly. At the same time, I would still need answers, too.”

With practice reps surely at a premium this summer with training camps throughout the league being significantly altered because of COVID-19, the Packers do have some younger players — including Chandon Sullivan, who made a good impression last season in spot duty, and Josh Jackson, a 2018 second-round pick who has yet to find a role on defense — who could fill Williams’ spot in the slot as the first player off the bench in defensive coordinator Mike Pettine’s system.

“We all know what Tramon has meant to the organization, and as you know, our history goes beyond here. We were together in Cleveland,” Pettine, the ex-Cleveland Browns coach and now third-year coordinator said in a Zoom call earlier this offseason. “When we went back and looked at last year’s tape, he was highly effective for us. He’s just that rare player who continues to play at a high level at a position you wouldn’t expect somebody to play even in their 30s, one that requires so much of their legs.

“Obviously we think very highly of ‘T,’ but we also understand the big picture part of it, the business side of it. So at this point we don’t know. It is up in the air. We don’t know how his final chapter is going to be written, whether it’s going to be here, whether it’s going to be with another team or whether he decides to retire. But just about Tramon though, this is a man who does things the right way and should be emulated. How he balances his family, his faith, his football is second to no one.

“I think it’s clear how we feel about him but it’s all part of the business end of it. But I do know it’s certainly something that’s been discussed.

Williams, meanwhile, would love nothing more than to finish his career where it first took off in 2007. After traveling from NFL city to NFL city every Tuesday to work out for another team, Williams finally got an offer from the Packers to join their practice squad at the end of the 2006 season.

He arrived at training camp in 2007 as a little-known, bottom-of-the-depth-chart longshot and ended that season as the team’s No. 3 cornerback behind perennial Pro Bowlers Charles Woodson and Al Harris. From there, he grew to become one of the NFL’s elite cover men and was crucial to the 2010 team’s run to the Super Bowl XLV title.

Now, only two players from that team remain on the roster — quarterback Aaron Rodgers and kicker Mason Crosby — while Williams surely played well enough to merit a 14th NFL season. Playing in all 16 games (including seven starts) and both playoff games, he registered 41 tackles, one tackle for a loss, two interceptions, a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries and 11 pass breakups while playing 73.2 percent of the defensive snaps.

Still, on a young defense — no defender currently on the roster is older than 27 — Williams’ leadership skills would also come in handy. Youngsters like Jaire Alexander and Kevin King, and even veteran safety Adrian Amos, looked to him last year to guide the unit.

That said, he doesn’t believe he’d come back just as a mentor.

“No doubt about it, I can still play at a high level,” Williams said. “I’m a competitor. We got so close to the Super Bowl last year, and as a competitor, regardless of how you feel, whether you want to continue to play or not, as a competitor, I want to win. So that’s the main factor in what I do want to do. I want to be in a situation where I can win. But I definitely feel I can still play at a high level.”

And as a leader?

“As far as being an old head, that’s not me because I look like I’m 27 years old. So I can blend right in,” Williams said with a laugh. “But I do think there’s definitely value to have a 37-year-old who looks like a 27-year-old.”

This article originally ran on madison.com.

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