Evaluating what Colorado's transfer portal activity means for Deion Sanders

Colorado has once again been the most active team in the transfer portal this offseason, and they’re as busy as ever with guys coming and going during the current spring portal window.

Colorado currently rates as the No. 3 school in the transfer portal this offseason, despite losing 35 guys and earning 29 commitments. But according to Andy Staples and Pete Nakos of On3, while the number of losses seems high, they actually don’t think many of them will truly hurt the Buffaloes.

“They’ve lost a bunch of guys they didn’t expect to play,” Staples explained Monday morning on the On3 YouTube channel, also touting some of CU’s additions.

“But they’re bringing in a couple guys, and one of the guys they’re bringing in is Dayon Hayes, the EDGE from Pitt who is seemingly one of the more high-impact guys in the portal.”

Nakos also thought highly of the Hayes addition, as well as a couple of others.

“Yeah, he was On3’s top EDGE available in the portal,” Nakos said of Hayes. “They also landed a commitment from the Texas offensive tackle, Payton Kirkland. And then, Rayyan Buell, who played at Ohio the last two years and had a really productive season in 2023 and was a little bit under the radar. So three guys who can probably play right away.”

Plus, according to Pete Nakos, the Buffs aren’t done adding in the portal and have other major contributors checking out campus soon.

“They had six guys on campus this weekend who would all be high-impact guys, so I think some more commitments could be coming up the pipeline.”

After talk of such great additions, Andy Staples made clear that Colorado’s mass of exports may not be the fate-worse-than-death some fans thought it was.

“Don’t get that exodus twisted. That was them continuing the churn of the roster,” commented Staples. “That is the philosophy: This is a tryout and if we don’t think you’re good enough, we’re going to bring someone else in.”

Nakos agreed, noting that many of the losses came at areas where Deion Sanders is trying to upgrade the roster.

“You look at the guys they lost, there are a couple surprises in my opinion, but mostly, there’s a few offensive linemen who went in and it’s clear Deion wants to add some more proven OL in this spring portal window. By no means were there any devastating portal losses for Colorado.”

35 guys out but 29 coming in, and overall, these two college football experts ultimately believe Colorado falls on the plus side of the portal action this offseason.