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Notre Dame LT Joe Alt opts out of bowl, declares for 2024 NFL Draft

IMG_7504by:Jack Soble•12/13/23•

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Joe Alt
Notre Dame offensive tackle Joe Alt. (Chad Weaver/Blue & Gold)

Notre Dame junior offensive tackle Joe Alt declared for the 2024 NFL Draft, he announced Wednesday on social media. He will skip the Sun Bowl against Oregon State, ending his college career.

Alt is the second Irish offensive tackle to declare for the draft in the past week, following junior right tackle Blake Fisher.

Alt is widely considered a potential top-10 pick, as well as the Irish’s best player. He finished the 2023 season with a 90.4 overall Pro Football Focus grade, including a 92.2 mark as a pass blocker. That 90.4 grade is No. 1 in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) among offensive tackles, with a minimum of 700 snaps.

Of every FBS tackle who met the threshold, none of them came close to Alt’s score. Oregon State’s Taliese Fuaga came in second with a mark of 86.9, while Missouri’s Javon Foster is No. 3 at 84.4. As far as pass-blocking goes, Alt is second in the nation behind Houston’s Patrick Paul, who just edged him out at 92.8.

The junior from Fridley (Minn.) Totino-Grace only allowed 5 pressures all season, according to PFF. That’s down from 8 in 2022 as a sophomore and 11 in 2021 as a freshman. Draft experts love Alt for his size, length, athleticism and fluidity as a blocker, and he’s expected to hear his name called early in the first round of the upcoming draft.

South Bend is a premier breeding ground for dominant NFL offensive linemen, and Alt looks like the next in line. He and Fisher will join Liam Eichenberg, Aaron Banks, Jarrett Patterson, Robert Hainsey, Zack Martin, Mike McGlinchey, Sam Mustipher, Quenton Nelson and Ronnie Stanley as Irish O-linemen in the NFL.

Alt has competition for being the first offensive tackle drafted in Penn State’s Olu Fashanu and Alabama’s J.C. Latham. Many draft experts believe each team’s personal preference is the only thing that will separate the top-three tackles, which is why the is word in front of “top-10 pick” is “likely” and not “guaranteed.”

Late in the season, Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker was asked what stood out most about Alt.

“Well, he is a pro,” Parker said. “We’re all gonna know that line, and he is the epitome of the word. The way he approaches his work on a daily basis and leads the right way, his intangibles, minus what his measurable are as a player. I couldn’t say enough great things about him.”

Alt will officially be a pro in the near future.

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