NFL Analysis
4/25/24
5 min read
Joe Alt NFL Draft 2024: Combine Results, Scouting Report For Los Angeles Chargers OT
The 2024 NFL Draft is getting close, making it an excellent time to highlight some of the class' best players with scouting reports. Each report will include strengths, weaknesses and background information.
Here's our report on Joe Alt.
Joe Alt'S 2024 NFL COMBINE RESULTS
- Height: 6'9"
- Weight: 321 lbs
- 40-Time: 5.05
- 10-Yard Split: 1.73
- Vertical: 28"
- Broad Jump: 9'4"
- 3-Cone: 7.31
- Shuttle: 4.51
Joe Alt 2024 NFL DRAFT SCOUTING REPORT
STRENGTHS:
- Well-proportioned, lean build with ideal arm length for the OT position and excellent overall athletic ability.
- Outstanding size and fluid movement in pass protection, with great coordination between the upper and lower half.
- Efficient with kick slide in pass protection. Balanced with a firm base. Controlled and calculated in his movement.
- Consistently did outstanding job with arm extension in pass protection. Kept feet clean and controlled rusher.
- Hand and grip strength foundations of pass protection profile. Size and arm length strong traits in his play.
- Efficient re-setting his hands in pass protection. Stayed in phase, with good balance and fundamental technique.
- Excellent awareness and accelerated vision to recognize and react to DL stunts and second-level pressures.
- Plus athleticism and mobility getting outside as puller in run game. Good balance and body control tracking.
- Came off the ball low, with leverage as base and drive blocker in run game. Strength on contact to move DL.
- Used his long arms effectively as run blocker. Grip strength to control DL and keep his body and feet clean.
- Athletic with excellent mobility and balance getting out on the perimeter as lead blocker in pin-pull run game.
- Competitive run blocker who finished with an edge. Sustained blocks with active feet and nasty demeanor.
- 2023 – Strong one-on-one POA blocker in the run game. Controlled DE with core and upper body strength.
- Consistently plays with good body position and clean footwork and leverage in run game. Understands angles.
- Relies more on athleticism and length than physicality in pass protection, At his best with light feet and balance.
- Used as puller across the formation in gap scheme concepts, Good athlete with balance and body control.
WEAKNESSES:
- Lateral quickness at times caused problems in pass protection. Reaching and lunging resulted in balance issues.
- 2023 – Must be more aggressive and assertive with hand strikes in pass protection. Tendency to place them.
- Did not fire his hands and shock pass rushers at times, resulting in rusher getting inside and driving him back.
- Much more of an extender than a striker with his hands in pass protection. Arm length at times compensated.
- Continued in pass protection to show tendency to reach with hands and lean with upper body. Balance issues.
- Run game snaps in which he did not fire off the ball with his hands. Too often showed tendency to be passive.
- Significant concerns with strength and aggressiveness in upper body. Snaps in which he was tossed in run game.
NFL TRANSITION:
Alt’s tape from 2022 and 2023 showed an LT prospect whose game was built on athleticism, length and technique more than physicality, strength and power. Alt is an athletic finesse LT whose tape showed a lack of strike power in his hands and throughout his body. His overall pass-protection approach is more passive than aggressive.
In the run game, Alt relied on excellent body position with a strong understanding of angles and leverage than he did on physicality and power. Still, there was no question he was consistently efficient in executing multiple blocking concepts.
Alt is a technician in the run game with an excellent feel for defensive movement and gap fluidity. He has the athleticism, balance and body control to react effectively to second-level defenders shooting gaps and playing downhill to release double teams.
What stood out on tape is Alt played with more physicality and power generation in the run game as the 2023 season progressed, with dominant snaps as a base and drive blocker. That will significantly help him in his transition to the next level.
The more tape I watched of Alt, the more I appreciated his high-level consistency of execution as a run blocker and in pass protection. Alt will need to be coached and developed as a pass protector, given that his hands are too passive, relying too much on arm extension and body length (often bending too far forward with excessive lean) to win.
But that will have to be modified and adapted in the NFL, where the good pass rushers will get inside of him if he doesn’t learn to fire his hands and strike with more force and initial power and stay better balanced over his feet without bending too much at the waist.
Overall, I believe Alt, with his size/length/plus athleticism/efficiency of execution, can be a Day 1 starter and a solid LT as he develops. Still, there will be growing pains and some bad snaps, especially vs. the better edge rushers in the NFL, as he acclimates to the NFL.
OTHER NOTES:
Alt came out of Minnesota as a 4-star recruit and became a full-time starter at Notre Dame in his freshman season of 2021. Alt finished his college career as a three-year starter at LT (33 consecutive starts) and was a unanimous First Team All-American in 2023.
He was featured a significant number of snaps in the Notre Dame run game as the tackle over lining up on the right side of the offensive line. He made an excellent block on North Carolina State LB Payton Wilson on Audric Estimé 80-yard TD run.
