Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine isn’t sure if Tramon Williams will play the 2020 season in Green Bay, but he appreciates the player and knows the team has discussed the possibility of bringing back the veteran cornerback for another year.
Pettine said there is a “big picture” and “business side” to the decision, but the Packers haven’t ruled out re-signing Williams.
“It’s clear how we feel about him. But it’s all part of the business end of it. We don’t know. But I do know it’s certainly something that’s been discussed,” Pettine said during a conference call with reporters last week.
Williams, who turned 37 years old in March, played almost 800 total snaps as the defense’s starting slot cornerback in 2019. While reviewing the season, Pettine and the Packers were pleased with what they saw on tape from No. 38.
“When we went back and looked at last year’s tape, he was highly effective for us,” Pettine said. “He’s just that rare player that continues to play at a high level at a position you wouldn’t expect somebody to play deep into their 30s, a position that requires so much of their legs.”
Williams intercepted two passes, gave up a completion percentage under 60 percent and allowed just two touchdown passes last season.
The Packers aren’t flush with cap space, and although the team didn’t add a cornerback in the draft, Pettine has other young cornerbacks – such as Chandon Sullivan, Josh Jackson and Ka’dar Hollman – he might want to get on the field, complicating the end of Williams’ NFL story in Green Bay.
“We think very highly of him, but we understand the big picture part of it, the business side of it. At this point we don’t know. It is up in the air,” Pettine said. “We don’t know how his final chapter is going to be written, whether it’s here, or with another team, or whether he decides to retire.”
The emergence of Sullivan last season combined with the versatility of safety Darnell Savage, who can play down in the slot, should provide Pettine with options should Williams move on or retire.
Williams left Green Bay after the 2014 season and played three seasons with the Cleveland Browns and Arizona Cardinals. He returned in 2018, following Pettine – his coach in Cleveland – to the Packers. Williams played cornerback and safety in 2018 before settling into a full-time slot role in 2019.
Pettine said Williams, who has now played 10 seasons with the Packers, is a “man who does things the right way and should be emulated.”
“How he balances his family, his faith and his football are second to no one,” Pettine said.