On Sunday morning, the Indianapolis Colts announced a trade with the Buffalo Bills, in which the Colts will send 2027 6th round pick and receive Bills backup center Sedrick Van Pran-Granger and a 2027 7th round pick:
This is one, where at the very least, everyone reasonably expected Indianapolis to be very active on the league waiver wire regarding final cuts, looking for a competent 2nd-string
center behind starter Tanor Bortolini.
With Van Pran-Granger likely on the roster bubble with the Bills, the Colts jumped the waive wire order and were able to land a young player, who they believe can be a decent backup center, at a very minimal cost of draft capital for next year.
The need for a backup center only heightened after yesterday, when in Saturday’s preseason finale, Colts transitioning 2nd-string center Dalton Tucker struggled snapping out of shotgun, with several errant snaps. Tucker would figure to transition solely back to backup offensive guard after this latest center acquisition.
Regarding Van Pran-Granger, the former 2024 5th round pick of the Bills stands at 6,’4”, 315 pounds, and was a former First-Team All-SEC and 2x CFP National Champion with the Georgia Bulldogs. Over the past two seasons for Buffalo, he’s appeared in 31 career games, making 2 starts.
While he didn’t receive enough snaps to qualify, with just 97 total offensive snaps, per PFF, he received a +58.6 overall grade last season, but that was highlighted +85.1 pass blocking grade.
It’s hard to disagree with this pickup, given how dire the backup center situation was for the Colts previously and the relative low cost of draft capital surrendered for Van Pran-Granger, who’s very much still a young center with some developmental upside coming out of their 2nd unit.
