Bills agree to trade center Sedrick Van Pran-Granger to Colts in draft pick swap

The Buffalo Bills agreed to trade center Sedrick Van Pran-Granger and a 2027 seventh-round pick to the Indianapolis Colts in exchange for a 2027 sixth-round pick, the team announced.

Van Pran-Granger, 24, was drafted in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL Draft and has played 31 NFL games. He was a two-time captain and won back-to-back national championships at Georgia, where he anchored the offensive line while starting 44 games.

Why the Bills moved on from Van Pran-Granger

After two years of being a healthy scratch, injured or deep on the reserve list, the Bills hoped Van Pran-Granger would take a step forward in his third season and win the backup center job, but it never materialized. He lost the job to veteran Lloyd Cushenberry III, whom the Bills signed to a low-cost, one-year deal in the offseason. The writing was on the wall that Van Pran-Granger may no longer be in the Bills’ plans when, after starting center Connor McGovern suffered a multi-week injury, Cushenberry was the only center to work with quarterback Josh Allen in practices and games.

The Bills were facing a roster crunch along the offensive line with 11 or 12 players they could conceivably keep. And of their six or seven potential reserves, they had five young linemen they’ve invested a Day 3 pick in. That young offensive line group, along with Cushenberry and veteran interior offensive lineman Austin Corbett, forced the Bills to make a tough choice. They’ve generally kept only nine or 10 offensive linemen under general manager Brandon Beane in past years. Van Pran-Granger is a center only, which is partly why he was moved. They’ve experimented with him at guard a handful of times through his three summers in Buffalo, but it never really stuck, and he was back at center before long. — Joe Buscaglia, Bills writer

Colts hope for stability at backup center

The Colts hope Van Pran-Granger can offer much-needed stability at backup center and, to put it bluntly, want someone who can snap out of the shotgun correctly. The Colts’ main backup center throughout training camp and the preseason was 2024 undrafted free agent Dalton Tucker, who transitioned from guard to center this offseason. He said last week he’d never done shotgun snaps before, and it showed as he repeatedly snapped the ball inaccurately, which led to fumbles and mistimed plays in practice and preseason games.

Now that the Colts have acquired Van Pran-Granger, it stands to reason that Tucker will likely be cut or moved back to guard when the Colts are forced to whittle down their 90-man offseason roster to the regular-season max of 53 players by Sunday’s 6 p.m. ET deadline. — James Boyd, Colts writer