Alonzo Highsmith, the Green Bay Packers scout who discovered cornerback Tramon Williams in 2006, has been named NFL Scout of the Year.
Highsmith was the No. 3 overall pick in the 1987 draft, but played just six NFL seasons due to knee injuries. He’s now a regional scout for the Packers.
The Houston Chronicle details Highsmith’s finding of Williams here. Undrafted out of Louisiana Tech, Williams lost out on a roster spot to Dunta Robinson, Phillip Buchanon, DeMarcus Faggins, Dexter McCleon, Lewis Sanders, and Von Hutchins in 2006 Texans camp. Gary Kubiak’s team did not even offer Williams a practice squad contract.
Texans fans are still sore over losing Williams. It’s hard to blame them considering Houston’s league-worst pass defense in 2010.
Add in the fact that not a solitary cornerback kept over Williams is still a Texan, and it’s a mini-public relations disaster for Kubiak. Four of the six are out of the league.
thank you from the green and gold faithful! hope he picks one just to rub it in some more!
Kubiak shouldn’t be getting blame for this. It’s not like Tramon Williams was a stud the moment he stepped on the field. He was obviously coached well, which one of the reasons why the Packers’ secondary coaches are being considered for the defensive coordinator position. Tramon Williams is a phyiscally talented corner who had good coaching get him to where he is. Kubiak could not have been expected to see Williams as a future stud, being an offensive guy anyway. This kind of stuff happens a lot. James Harrison was a practice squad guy for the Ravens. You think they knew he would someday win defensive player of the year?
I do think it’s good that the Packers are giving credit to this scout, though. Classy move. Most scouts never get recognition for finding diamonds in the rough
Tramon Williams wasn’t really even heard of outside of GB before 2010. Do you think he was really lighting it up at Texans camp in ’06 and he got cut anyway?
Some guys (take James Harrison for example) don’t catch on until a few years after being in the league. They probably cut him then because he was the worst guy in camp at that time.
Ah, Terrellblowins, isn’t it supposed to be the job of Kubiak and his staff to identify talent and develop it?
Although he was not a stud back in 2006, and he has received great coaching for the last four years, scouts and coaches are supposed to recognize potentail, and that is what the Texans failed to do.
Houston , come on! You had to have seen something in this guy,,,to not even offer a practice squad….Someone needs to be fired over that one…
I could care less about the texans but I can hardly blame them because 5 years later the guy hit the big time. it’s not like he did great there and they cut him for the other guys. he was undrafted for a reason,nice that he proved people wrong but it’s not like he became a superstar right after the texans got rid of him.
Bud Adams should be kicking himself too ….as Highsmith played for his Houston Oilers.
Evaluating talent is the #1 job of a team’s personnel department.
You find guys with ability and desire, then you teach them how to play the game.
That’s the secret to winning consistently.
Tramon Williams was the kind of lightly regarded PS guy that every NFL team brings to camp when he opened the eyes of a ton of Packer fans by tearing it up at the Packers annual televised scrimmage back in Aug 2007. He’s been making plays and working his way up to one of the top CBs in the NFL ever since.
Alonzo Highsmith deserves a ton of credit for finding him. As does Joe Whitt, Jr, his position coach, for polishing off the rough edges–a task he’s now accomplishing with Sam Shields, as well. As does Charles Woodson for being a mentor and the kind of leader every NFL team wants.
Give the coaches some props, he still was just so so last year with the occasional flashes. No one is born a great player, they need hard work and coaching.
Love Alonzo Highsmith, one of the original Hurricanes.
I don’t get the correlation… Scout of the year but the guy came out in 2006?
I’m guessing Sam Shields, Frank Zombo, Erik Walden, Howard Green, and Charlie Peprah had just as much to do with this as Williams. It kind of seems like they just picked one of the Packers’ scouts and gave him the award. The entire scouting department for Green Bay deserves a lot of praise, Highsmith included.
Do you think Tramon will be 34 or 35 years old when the Vikings throw $15M a year at him?
Erik Walden came off the street.
Howard Green was a gift. Thank you Jets!
this kid should have gotten DPOY votes…since he has stepped into the position he has been nothing short of a badass
Playing with Al Harris and Charles Woodson is what molded Tramon into the player he is today.
Williams has helped GB a ton since 2007. A major contribution was insuring that Frank Walker was only in GB for 1 year. The Pack signed Walker to play the nickle that year, but Tramon beat him out.
Walker was so pissed about being relegated to a dime back that he wouldn’t resign with GB. lol