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Los Angeles Chargers select former Notre Dame LT Joe Alt with No. 5 pick in 2024 NFL Draft

Kyle Kellyby: Kyle Kelly04/26/24ByKyleKelly
Joe Alt
Notre Dame LT Joe Alt (76) (Chad Weaver/Blue & Gold)

Joe Alt is headed to Hollywood. With the No. 5 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, the Los Angeles Chargers selected the former Notre Dame Fighting Irish stalwart left tackle.

Alt was the first offensive tackle to come off the board during Thursday night’s first round. 

He follows in the footsteps of Zack Martin, Mike McGlinchey, Quenton Nelson and Ronnie Stanley. They were all former Notre Dame offensive linemen selected in the first round within the last decade. Alt was the only one to go top five.

Martin, Nelson and Stanley have all earned first-team All-Pro recognition at least once during their pro careers. Meanwhile, McGlinchey claimed All-Rookie Team honors in 2018. In Alt’s three years in South Bend, he proved that his profile carries the same potential. 

Alt was unanimous All-America in 2023, first-team All-America in 2022 and a freshman All-American in 2021. He only surrendered four sacks in 1,103 pass-blocking snaps, including zero as a sophomore in 2022. Pro Football Focus graded him as their top offensive lineman in 2023 and No. 2 in 2022. 

Alt accomplished each one of those feats despite three different position coaches: Jeff Quinn (2021), Harry Hiestand (2022) and Joe Rudolph (2023).

A product of Totino-Grace High in Fridley, Minn., Alt arrived at Notre Dame with a pedigree and plenty of untapped potential. 

He is the son of former Kansas City Chiefs offensive tackle John Alt. The elder Alt is in the Chiefs Hall of Fame and was a two-time Pro Bowler. The younger Alt primarily played tight end in high school before becoming a full-time offensive tackle with the Irish. 

Joe Alt’s rise to stardom began by happenstance. He was the fourth option to play left tackle in 2022. It took an injury to highly-touted offensive tackle recruit Blake Fisher — who is also in Alt’s class and declared for the NFL Draft — and poor performances from Tosh Baker and Michael Carmody for Alt to earn his shot. His Notre Dame career took off from there. 

In addition to only allowing four sacks, Alt gave up just 17 career pressures. His pass-blocking efficiency — a PFF stat measuring pressure allowed on a per-snap basis with weighting toward sacks allowed — of 99.1 ranked No. 2 among offensive tackles in 2023. He finished third with 99.3 in 2022.  

Alt ended up playing over 2,000 snaps at left tackle in a Notre Dame uniform. Head coach Marcus Freeman named him a team captain in 2023. Alt was the only underclassman to don the “C” on his chest last season.

As a recruit, Alt was the No. 364 overall player and No. 31 offensive tackle in the 2021 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. 

Rivals.com did not even rank Alt as a recruit and rated him as a lowly three-star prospect. On3 ranked him the highest as the No. 139 overall player and No. 16 offensive tackle in the class. 

Now, Alt can say he was the No. 5 player and No. 1 OL selected in his NFL Draft class. 

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