What did we learn from the unofficial preseason All-Pac-12 teams?

Two national publications released their preseason All-Pac-12 teams… and the results weren’t great.

Eight different Buffaloes were recognized but none of them earned first-team honors. Two of them, safety Isaiah Lewis and wide receiver R.J. Sneed, earned a second-team honor. The official media preseason All-Pac-12 teams will be released at Pac-12 Media Days in late July.

Athlon Sports

Second Team: S Isaiah Lewis

Third Team: DL Jalen Sami, LB Quinn Perry, K Cole Becker

Fourth Team: TE Brady Russell, OL Casey Roddick

Phil Steele

Second Team: WR R.J. Sneed

Third Team: DL Jalen Sami

Fourth Team: TE Brady Russell, S Isaiah Lewis, DL Terrance Lang

No first-teamers

The elephant in the room is that neither publication gave CU a first-team player.

It’s rough.

But it’s also expected.

CU has a handful of players who are capable of being a first-team All-Pac-12 performer, mostly the guys who are named above, but none of them have proven enough to get the preseason nod.

I’ll say there’s a 35% chance CU gets somebody onto the postseason first-team All-Pac-12 squad. Kicker Cole Becker might have the best chance.

Can RJ Sneed boost the offense?

These preseason All-Pac-12 teams indicate a lack of talent on CU’s roster but the lack of offensive players in particular stands out.

Athlon has Brady Russell and Casey Roddick on the fourth team. Steele also has Russell on the fourth team.

The only other offensive player is RJ Sneed, who was a second-teamer for Steele but didn’t even make the fourth team for Athlon.

To be fair, Sneed is a tough player to place. He’s a veteran commodity who was consistently productive at Baylor and peaked as a second-teamer in the Big 12.

Sneed is the clear top receiving threat for the CU offense. The question is whether he can carry the passing game and earn another second-team all-conference nod or if the question marks on the CU offense will hold him back. Athlon, apparently, leans toward the latter.

Isaiah Lewis earns some respect

Veteran safety Isaiah Lewis led the team in tackles last year, thanks in part to Nate Landman and Quinn Perry splitting the middle linebacker job because of injury.

The combination of tackling ability and coverage skills out of the slot make it easy to project Lewis as an All-Pac-12 performer. The lack of truly elite athletic ability could keep him off of the first team.

Still, Lewis figures to be one of the steadiest defenders on a CU defense with some battles for playing time at other positions. He probably belongs right where he was placed on these lists.

No Josh Chandler-Semedo

The most notable omission from these lists is veteran linebacker Josh Chandler-Semedo, who comes to CU after starting 31 games at West Virginia.

Chandler-Semedo never made an All-Big-12 team but he was honorable mention twice. Last week, On3 Sports called Chandler-Semedo the fifth-best linebacker in the country.

Jalen Sami and Terrance Lang fit in about where you’d expect on these lists, but you’d think Chandler-Semedo would’ve gotten at least a fourth-team nod—if not much better—from one of these publications considering where the linemen are listed.