Indianapolis Colts Sign Carson Towt: Why the Ex-Notre Dame Hoops Star Could Be Awesome as a Tight End

Every Sunday in the fall, NFL broadcasters dust off their favorite piece of trivia. You know exactly what it sounds like. The camera pans to a massive human being boxing out a defensive back in the end zone, and the color commentator gleefully chimes in: “Hey, did you know he actually played college basketball?”

Get ready to hear that exact sentence echoing through Lucas Oil Stadium for the Colts again.

In a move that feels like a beautiful mix of March Madness nostalgia and pure gridiron experimentation, the Indianapolis Colts have signed Carson Towt. If that name doesn’t ring a bell for die-hard draft junkies, don’t panic. Towt wasn’t a combine standout. In fact, just a few weeks ago, he was lacing up his sneakers as a power forward for the Notre Dame men’s basketball team. Now, he’s trading the hardwood for the turf, attempting to carve out a career in a sport he has literally zero experience playing at the high school or college level.

From the Hardwood to the Gridiron: Who is Carson Towt?

To understand the sheer audacity of this move, you have to look at Towt’s athletic resume. The 24-year-old is a legitimate physical specimen. Standing at a towering 6-foot-7 and weighing in at a rock-solid 250 pounds, Towt looks like he was built in a laboratory designed exclusively to create NFL tight ends.

Before landing in South Bend, Towt made his living in the paint at Northern Arizona. During the 2025 season, he led the entire NCAA in rebounds and earned second-team All-Big Sky honors. He then transferred to Notre Dame, where he averaged 5.9 points and a staggering 9.0 rebounds per game for the Fighting Irish. He is a guy who thrives on doing the dirty work—setting brutal screens, fighting for positioning, and snatching the ball out of the air through sheer force of will.

When you think about it, grabbing a contested rebound in a crowded paint isn’t all that different from high-pointing a football over a frantic NFL linebacker.

The Indianapolis Colts Love a Good Tight End Experiment

If you’re wondering why the Colts are taking a flyer on a guy who hasn’t put on shoulder pads in his adult life, look no further than their own locker room.

Indianapolis already has a blueprint for this exact scenario in veteran tight end Mo Alie-Cox. Remember him? Alie-Cox was a standout basketball player at VCU before signing with the Colts as an undrafted free agent back in 2017. He turned that raw, basketball-centric athleticism into a lucrative, long-term NFL career, recently re-signing with Indy this offseason. Towt won’t have to look far for a mentor who understands the terrifying transition from running pick-and-rolls to learning an NFL playbook.

Of course, the history of the league is littered with hoops stars who successfully made the leap. Future Hall of Famer Antonio Gates never played a snap of college football. Jimmy Graham only played one season. The precedent is there, and the Colts are hoping lightning strikes twice in the same building.

Will This Mad Experiment Actually Work?

Let’s be real for a second: transitioning to the NFL is incredibly difficult even for guys who have played the game their entire lives. Towt is going to have to learn how to block 260-pound defensive ends who run like track stars. He has to learn route trees, audibles, and how to take a hit over the middle without dropping the football.

But talk to the kid, and you can’t help but root for him.

“I’ve had the itch to play football pretty much all through college,” Towt admitted recently. “It’s kind of worked out where my basketball career has come to an end in college, and it’s perfect timing to kind of segue into this transition.”

Towt knows exactly what he brings to the table. He isn’t disillusioned about the uphill battle ahead. He recognizes that his physical gifts—the ones that carried him to Notre Dame—are custom-made for the violent, beautiful game of football. He prides himself on being physical.

Towt joins a crowded tight end room in Indianapolis. He’ll be competing for snaps alongside rising star Tyler Warren, the veteran Mo Alie-Cox, Drew Ogletree, Will Mallory, and Sean McKeon. Earning a spot on the final 53-man roster will be an absolute dogfight. But if there is one thing a guy who led the nation in rebounding knows how to do, it’s fight for his space. We’ll find out this summer if Towt can box out the competition.