INDIANAPOLIS – Is Mo Alie-Cox going to be Mo Alie-Cox 2.0?
The Colts hope so after they signed Alie-Cox, a former basketball player from VCU, on Friday afternoon.
At 6-7 and 250 pounds, Alie-Cox is expected to give the tight end position a try at the professional level.
The reason the Colts could sign Alie-Cox before next week's NFL Draft comes from him having redshirted at VCU. That redshirt year technically made Alie-Cox draft eligible in 2016.
Alie-Cox comes to Indianapolis with more experience than Swoope did three years ago.
When Alie-Cox transferred high schools following his freshman year, his football career came to a close.
"I always played tight end and defensive end," Alie-Cox said last year. "When I transferred to private school after my 9th grade year, they didn't have football. I was pretty much forced to stick with basketball and ended up landing a DI scholarship."
After VCU's basketball season came to a close in last month's NCAA Tournament, the attention towards Alie-Cox really picked up.
Alie-Cox reportedly ran a 4.75 40-yard dash at his Pro Day. The Colts hosted Alie-Cox on a visit earlier this week.
How the Colts have developed Swoope from the practice squad to the team's No. 2 tight end had to be intriguing to Alie-Cox.
At VCU, Alie-Cox was a three-year starter and averaged 9.5 points and 4.2 rebounds during his senior season.
Basketball players making the transition to the gridiron is something that has made waves recently in the NFL.
Guys like Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez, Jimmy Graham and Julius Thomas are all former basketball players who have found Pro Bowl-level success in professional football.
Jimmy Raye III, the Colts' Vice President of Football Operations, played a major role in discovering Gates.
Expect Alie-Cox to join the Colts roster for the offseason program and try to find his way onto the 53-man roster or practice squad, where Swoope spent two years.
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