Executives around the NFL are continuing to pay close attention to Deion Sanders' coaching tenure at Colorado, and that may not be a good thing anymore.

The Athletic's Mike Sando spoke to two execs who offered withering assessments of Coach Prime on the heels of the Buffaloes' 28-10 loss to Nebraska on Saturday.

"Now, he looks like a guy who lacks detail, his hard-edged style is running people out of there and he is just really promoting his son," one said.

Another echoed the concerns derived from Colorado's sloppy play.

"There is nothing wrong with what we said last year, that he tells the truth and connects with players," the second executive said. "But there's a lot more that goes into it than connecting with the players and telling the truth to the media about the state of college athletics. A lot more goes into winning, like blocking and tackling and protecting the passer and having the quarterback not scramble so frequently that everything is off timing."

The honeymoon period ended quickly for Sanders in his first season, as Colorado dropped eight of its last nine games. Still, a 4-8 record was an improvement over 2022, and it's tough to judge any college coach after just one year because they need a full recruiting cycle to begin putting their imprint on a program.

Through the Buffs' first two games, however, it doesn't appear Sanders and his staff fully addressed the most glaring issues on the field.

Quarterback Shedeur Sanders was sacked six times against Nebraska. Colorado is on pace to average the second-fewest rushing yards in FBS for the second year in a row. The defense is 118th in opponent passer rating (160.1) and tied for 97th in yards allowed (391.5 per game).

This time last season, Colorado was riding high after beating Nebraska and getting out to a 2-0 start. Sanders was being floated as a potential coaching candidate for NFL teams.

All of the excitement obviously proved to be premature.

Perhaps the opposite is happening now where people are overreacting negatively about the Buffaloes, who steadily win over their skeptics across the remainder of the campaign.

The university has invested so much in the Coach Prime experiment that it's tough to envision a realistic scenario in which it would fire Sanders only two years into the job. But going 4-8 again would probably lower the odds the 57-year-old can leave for greener pastures.