Brandon Beane has never been shy about using August to shake up his roster, and that history makes this time of year worth watching in Buffalo. From the early moves involving Sammy Watkins, Ronald Darby, and Reggie Ragland in his first August as Bills GM to later deals that sent out Eli Harold for Ryan Bates, moved Wyatt Teller to the Browns, and brought back late-round picks for Corey Coleman, Russell Bodine, Darryl Johnson, Boogie Basham, and Cody Ford, Beane has built a clear pattern.
He didn’t make an August trade in 2025. That alone keeps the door open for one in the weeks before the 2026 regular season.
Here are the Bills players who look likeliest to come up in trade talk, listed from least likely to most likely.
Keon Coleman belongs in the conversation because of where he was drafted and how this has gone so far. The former first pick in the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft has not lived up to that billing entering Year 3, and he still hasn’t locked down the WR3 job after a very quiet camp.
Buffalo hasn’t said anything to suggest he’s available, but that doesn’t mean speculation won’t start if he gets a lot of preseason snaps and doesn’t do much with them. The Bills don’t have a surplus at receiver, and they’re unlikely to give up on an early second-round pick before his third season even starts.
Still, he has work to do if he’s going to become a useful part of Joe Brady’s offense.
Lloyd Cushenberry looked like a long shot to be moved, especially since he took first-team center reps this week with Connor McGovern dinged. That said, his experience could still make him attractive to teams desperate for help on the interior of the offensive line as the season nears.
He has 80 games of regular-season starting experience, and the Bills surely value that too. Plus, Cushenberry was Brady’s center during the famous 2019 season at LSU.
Even so, with McGovern’s injury, it feels unlikely Buffalo would trade a center right now.
Damar Hamlin is locked into a battle with Geno Stone for the veteran insurance role at safety behind starters Cole Bishop and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, in a room that also includes Jalon Kilgore and Jordan Hancock. Hamlin has had one of his better training camps, which helps his chances of making the 53-man roster.
His leadership also matters. But if Buffalo decides he loses that backup veteran safety fight, he could be dealt for a late-round pick in one of the next two drafts.
Geno Stone is in a similar spot, only his path feels a little shakier. The Bills brought him in early in free agency as a deep depth option with plenty of experience, but he’s never looked like a sure thing to stick on the roster.
Hancock and Kilgore bring more versatility, and Gardner-Johnson avoiding serious injury in camp only tightens the squeeze. Stone was fine at St.
John Fisher University, but not especially memorable. If Hamlin wins the competition and Stone gets passed over, Beane could shop him before September.
Sedrick Van Pran-Granger may actually be the more realistic trade piece of the center group because he sits behind Cushenberry on the depth chart heading into the preseason opener against the Panthers. A 2024 fifth-round pick, he was developed as a future option after an accomplished run at Georgia, but this looks like the moment for him to seize the emergency starter job while McGovern is out.
So far, that hasn’t happened. Once the backup center competition ends, the odd man out at that spot feels like a strong candidate to be traded or released.
The winner could even start Week 1.
DeWayne Carter is another name to watch because his situation has shifted a lot since he entered the league. As a rookie in 2024, he barely registered and even started as a healthy scratch before a torn Achilles wiped out his second season before it began.
He’s now reportedly up around 330 pounds and being asked to handle a rotational nose tackle role, which is a different job than the one he was drafted for. He was originally viewed as a one-gap penetrator at around 300 pounds, but now he has to learn an entirely new two-gapping, dirty-work role under a completely new defensive staff.
He hasn’t shown much so far, though he did flash with one tackle close to the line in camp. At 25 and healthy, he still has enough upside that another team might be willing to send Buffalo a late-round pick for him.
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