Brandon Beane loves himself an August trade.
It started with Sammy Watkins, Ronald Darby, and Reggie Ragland in his first August as Bills GM. Others since include Eli Harold for Ryan Bates, sending Wyatt Teller to the Browns, and netting late-round selections for the likes of Corey Coleman, Russell Bodine, Darryl Johnson, Boogie Basham, and Cody Ford.
Beane did not make an August trade in 2025, which means he’s due.
Let’s list the players most likely to be traded by Beane in the coming weeks before
the start of the 2026 regular season.
The players are listed from least likely to most likely
Keon Coleman
Coleman has to be mentioned here as the former first pick in the second round — of the 2024 NFL Draft — who has clearly underperformed entering Year 3. His inclusion can further be explained simply by the sped-up nature of today’s NFL and because he hasn’t locked down the WR3 role on this team after a very quiet camp.
The Bills have said nothing to indicate Coleman is on the trade block. But of course not every traded player was once situated on the trade block.
If Coleman plays a lot during the preseason — which I fully expect him to — and hardly makes an impact, you will likely hear his name mentioned in trade speculation. Now, the Bills roster doesn’t feature a surplus of receiver talent, and the team is unlikely to abandon an early second-round pick before his third season even begins, but Coleman has his work cut out for him to become a serviceable piece of Joe Brady’s offense.
Lloyd Cushenberry
Looks like Cushenberry, not Sedrick Van Pran-Granger whom I gave the nod to at backup center on my most recent 53-man roster projection, took first-team snaps at center this week with Connor McGovern dinged, so as it currently stands, Cushenberry is an unlikely trade chip.
However, his experience — which was likely integral to the Bills signing him — would be enticing to other clubs who may be in dire need on the interior of their offensive line as the regular season approaches. Theoretically, Cushenberry would hold reasonable trade value. Yet given McGovern’s injury, it feels even unlikely the Bills trade a center at this stage.
And, like other clubs, the Bills almost assuredly love his 80 games of regular-season starting experience. Plus, Cushenberry was Brady’s center during the famous 2019 season at LSU.
Sedrick Van Pran-Granger
SVPG is more likely to be moved than Cushenberry because of his positioning behind Cushenberry on the team’s depth chart ahead of the preseason opener against the Panthers.
A 2024 fifth-round pick, SVPG has been groomed as a developmental blocker after an illustrious career at the pivot for national title winning Georgia Bulldogs teams. Now would the be time for Van Pran-Granger to grab the emergency starter gig — with McGovern sidelined — but apparently that hasn’t happened yet.
I included Cushenberry and SVPG together because it feels like the odd-man out at backup center will either be traded or released. Or at least there’s a strong likelihood of either of those transactions when the backup center battle concludes.
The winner could possibly start Week 1.
DeWayne Carter
Carter hardly made a blip on the radar as a rookie in 2024 — he started as a healthy scratch — before a torn Achilles derailed his second professional season before it began.
Now he’s apparently bulked up in the 330 range to morph into a rotational nose tackle, not exactly a spot on the roster that holds extreme position value to begin with. However, nose tackles tend to need breaks throughout the game / season, so if Carter were to make waves in the preseason, he could sell himself as an important piece behind Deone Walker.
However, to date, Carter has hardly popped. I noticed one tackle close to the line in training camp. And with an entirely new defensive staff not tied to his draft selection in 2024, I firmly believe he has an uphill climb to make the roster. He was drafted to be a one-gap penetrator weighing around 300 pounds. Now he’s being asked to take on an entirely new, two-gapping, dirty-work role with drastically altered body composition.
Although, given he’s only 25 with a clean bill of health, it wouldn’t be shocking if another team would be interested in sending the Bills a late-rounder to acquire his services.
