{"id":847345,"date":"2026-04-01T15:20:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T15:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/847345\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T15:20:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T15:20:21","slug":"one-player-who-wont-be-on-buffalo-bills-roster-by-week-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/847345\/","title":{"rendered":"One Player Who Won’t Be on Buffalo Bills’ Roster by Week 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

The selection made sense<\/a> at the time when the Buffalo Bills<\/a> had question marks at the center position.<\/p>\n

By releasing the aging Mitch Morse as a salary cap casualty<\/a> after the 2023 season, the Bills committed to starting a new center for the first time since 2019.<\/p>\n

Tabbing left guard Connor McGovern to move to center full time, Buffalo used a 2024 fifth-round draft pick to select Georgia’s Sedrick Van Pran-Granger<\/a> as the presumed backup plan.<\/p>\n

Two years later, however, Van Pran-Granger seemingly has less of an opportunity to see the field than he did as a rookie.<\/p>\n

\"Sedrick<\/p>\n

Nov 30, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Buffalo Bills place kicker Matt Prater (15) celebrates with Buffalo Bills center Sedrick Van Pran-Granger (62) after kicking a field goal during the second quarter against the Pittsburgh Steelers | Barry Reeger-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Not only did the Bills recently secure McGovern’s services<\/a> through 2028, they also added veteran free agent Lloyd Cushenberry<\/a>, who has 80 career starts and an endorsement from head coach Joe Brady.<\/p>\n

Currently, it appears as if Van Pran-Granger, who has totaled only 217 offensive snaps over his first two seasons, is destined for the No. 3 spot on the depth chart. With the versatile Alec Anderson also available to snap in emergency situations, there’s a low likelihood that the Bills will dedicate three 53-man roster spots to full-time centers.<\/p>\n

Writing on wall for Van Pran-Granger<\/p>\n

While the Bills’ interest in Cushenberry may not be a direct indictment of Van Pran-Granger, it certainly isn’t an endorsement.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the league meetings in Phoenix this week, head coach Joe Brady alluded to the idea<\/a> of Cushenberry, not Van-Pran Granger, replacing McGovern had the starter left in free agency.<\/p>\n

“Lloyds a starting center in the NFL. You go through the process, going into free agency, there was a chance we lost both Connor and David [Edwards]. It was keeping me up at night with some of those thoughts. Lloyd was a guy, I know he’s coming off of an injury, but Lloyd was a possibility of being our starter, or just a guy that we would think about as a starter,” said Brady.<\/p>\n

\"Lloyd<\/p>\n

Oct 20, 2024; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Tennessee Titans center Lloyd Cushenberry III (79) looks to block against the Buffalo Bills during the first half at Highmark Stadium. | Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Coming back from a 2024 mid-season Achilles tear, Cushenberry returned to start 15 games for the Tennessee Titans last year. The Denver Broncos’ third-round pick, who entered the NFL in 2020, has been a six-year starter.<\/p>\n

“Having a guy like Lloyd that has a lot of stripes in the league, has played a lot, and now he’s in a role that can potentially be your swing, being a backup, you never want anything to happen to your starter, but having a guy that’s done that with experience, I think that’s valuable for us,” said Brady.<\/p>\n

What’s next for Van Pran-Granger?<\/p>\n

Barring an injury, the Bills have no need Van Pran-Granger in the foreseeable future, and he’s likely too good to hide on the practice squad without being poached by another team.<\/p>\n

Instead of keeping the center on the roster at the expense of another position, Buffalo could look to trade Van Pran-Granger for a Day 3 draft pick. With 44 career starts for Georgia, the athletic center is bound to have some value on the market.<\/p>\n

Turning the former fifth-round pick into a future fifth-round selection could be considered a win at this stage, especially when the Bills already have two starting caliber centers on the roster.<\/p>\n

\"Sedrick<\/p>\n

Georgia offensive lineman Sedrick Van Pran (63) gives direction during the second half of a NCAA college football game against Kentucky in Athens, Ga., on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. | Joshua L. Jones \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The selection made sense at the time when the Buffalo Bills had question marks at the center position.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[215,214,53,2086,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-847345","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-bills","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-buffalo-bills","11":"tag-buffalobills","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116330133371209328","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}