As the NFL trade deadline creeps closer, the Buffalo Bills’ safety search keeps circling back to one of the most practical names on the board: Colts veteran Cam Bynum.
Bynum is the latest entry in this trade-candidate series, and he fits the profile of a player on a roster that looks to be heading toward a reset. He’s 28, has logged more than 5,000 career snaps when playoffs are included, and has spent his time in Indianapolis on a team that appears to be in fire-sale mode.
A former cornerback at California-Berkeley, Bynum was taken by Minnesota in the fourth round in 2021 and was immediately moved to safety. That switch stuck. By his second season, he was playing every snap on defense in the regular season, and he backed that up with 81 tackles, six passes defended and two interceptions.
The production kept rolling in 2023. Bynum was on the field for 99.2% of the Vikings’ defensive snaps and posted 137 tackles, nine pass breakups and two interceptions. That earned him a four-year, $60 million contract with the Colts that included $26 million guaranteed.
In Indianapolis, Bynum has kept doing what he does: showing up, filling up the stat sheet and rarely leaving the field. Through 24 games with the Colts, he has five interceptions, 10 pass breakups and an average of 4.45 tackles per game. In 2026, he has taken three snaps along the defensive line out of 430 total defensive snaps, but he has otherwise settled in as a true free safety.
That matters for Buffalo because the Bills may need an every-down free safety if C.J. Gardner-Johnson’s role shrinks after his suspension.
Bynum would give them a steadier fit there. He brings ball skills from his cornerback background, and just as importantly, he brings reliable tackling.
His career missed tackle rate sits at 8.8%, and he has missed only three games in his NFL career, all of them as a rookie in 2021.
The money is workable, too. Bynum is due a $10 million salary in 2026, and if Buffalo were to make the move after Week 9, the team would take on $5 million of that base salary.
He also has roster bonuses that could add another $270,000 if he appears in all nine regular-season games in 2026. His base salaries over the next two seasons are $13.4 million and $14.4 million, though neither is guaranteed.
If Buffalo acquired him, reworking the deal would likely be part of the plan, turning those larger base salaries into future guaranteed money.
The trade-market estimate from Syndicate32.com, with the Colts’ fire-sale situation factored in, pegs the cost at an early Round 3 pick in 2027. That feels a bit rich for a steady safety who can be exposed in coverage at times, especially with Indianapolis looking to reshape its roster.
Still, Bynum checks a lot of boxes for what the Bills need. He isn’t a star, but he offers a dependable floor at free safety and enough upside to matter. Buffalo would know what it was getting every week, which is a pretty sharp contrast to the Gardner-Johnson experience so far.
Even so, a Round 3 pick feels steep. If the Colts would settle for one of Buffalo’s fourth-round picks instead, this is a move the Bills should seriously weigh.
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