It’s time for March Madness as the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is set to begin later this week. The tournament coincides with the NFL free agency period, and it looks like the Indianapolis Colts have made a rather unique and fitting signing.
On Tuesday afternoon, the team [announced that it had signed](https://x.com/Colts/status/2033980288653541878?s=20) former Notre Dame Fighting Irish player Carson Towt as a free agent after he went undrafted in the 2025 NFL Draft last year.
However, there’s a catch, and a pretty good reason why he was not selected in the 2025 NFL Draft: he’s a former basketball player who has no experience playing football at either the high school or college level.
That said, Towt is clearly quite athletic, which is what the Colts seem to be banking on as they look for him to play tight end.
The 6-foot-8, 250-pound athlete played basketball at Northern Arizona from 2020 to 2024. In 2024, he set the Big Sky Conference single-season record with 423 total rebounds, which led the entire country. He also recorded 20 double-doubles that season. He was dominant enough to earn a spot on Notre Dame’s roster for the 2025 season.
At Notre Dame, Towt was not quite the dominant player he was at Northern Arizona, but he was still quite effective, especially as a rebounder. During the 2025 season, he averaged 9 rebounds per game to go along with 5.9 points.
The Colts are clearly trying to recreate some magic from a similar signing.
Back in 2017, the Colts signed former VCU basketball player Mo Alie-Cox. Alie-Cox as an undrafted free agent despite limited experience playing football. Alie-Cox became a perfectly servicable tight end for the team. In fact, he just re-signed with the Colts on Monday and became the second-longest tenured member of the team’s roster.
Obviously, Towt has a long way to go before proving himself as a football player, but his rebounding ability proves that he has good hands and is willing and able to fight for a ball in the air, which is an important skill set for a tight end, especially in the red zone.
At the very least, it’s a fun crossover story with both the NFL Free agency period and March Madness happening at the same time.