Chiefs: An ALT-ernative Pick

Laddie Morse

Is there a Kansas City Chiefs fan who wouldn’t like to see LT Joe Alt in red and gold this coming fall? I seriously doubt that. The question is, what would it take for that to happen? An act of God seems to be the best answer. So, let’s take a look at what actually would have to happen for John Alt’s son — Joe Alt — to play where his father once played.

This was posted on Instagram and it reflects the wishes of so many in Chiefs Kingdom.

chiefskingdomcp – credit

John Alt — 6-foot-8, 298 lbs. — was an Offensive Tackle who played for the Chiefs from 1984 to 1996 and was taken in the first round of the 1984 draft with the 21st pick. From bowlers201.rssing.com comes this about John Alt:

After John Alt retied from the NFL and the Chiefs, where he played his whole career, he became an assistant High School coach then moved on to become an Offensive Line coach where he got to coach his son Joe. John has another son named Mark who was taken in the NHL Entry Draft at pick #53 in 2010.

Joe Alt

Joe Alt — 6-foot-8, 322 lbs. — has become the best of the best Offensive Tackles in the 2024 NFL Draft. Like his father, Joe played Tight End in High School, among other positions, including OT. Joe played both TE and OT when he first went to Notre Dame, the college he played his whole career at. Joe was an Outland Trophy Finalist (an award given each year to the best college lineman), in 2023, but the award went to Texas Defensive Lineman T’Vondre Sweat.

Although CBSSports.com lists Joe Alt as the 7th best prospect in this year’s draft (and the second OT behind Olumuyiwa Fashanu)… DrafTek.com lists Alt as the 4th best prospect overall and the best OT in this year’s draft. If the Chiefs are to make a move to go up and draft Joe Alt, he would have to fall to the 8, 9 or 10 area. For that to happen, probably a couple of OTs would have to go before Joe Alt including Olumuyiwa Fashanu and Taliese Fuaga. If they happen to get drafted before Joe Alt — which does NOT seem likely — then I’d hope that Chiefs GM, Brett Veach, has a plan to go up and draft him.

For Joe Alt to become a Chiefs player, K.C. would likely have to trade their whole draft away. The Top 12 picks in the 2024 NFL Draft look like this… for now:

The Las Vegas Raiders have the 13th pick as well, and I doubt they’d be willing to do a trade up with K.C.. Using the Trade Value Chart at DrafTek.com I gathered the following information about the Chiefs trading all their picks to move up to #9, which seems like the most optimal landing spot (since Chicago is the only non-AFC team near that spot, plus, they currently only have four picks in this draft):

The problem for K.C. is that the 9th spot in the draft is worth 1,350 points (on DrafTek’s Trade Value Chart) and K.C. could only offer 1,051.8 this year. They’d have to come up with more draft capital (from next year’s draft) just to get their LT of the future. Plus, the Chiefs have other needs besides a LT.

Many Kingdom fans have been hoping the Chiefs would draft a WR even if it’s later on in the draft process. This draft is loaded with great WRs and K.C. would be essentially taking themselves out of the race for a good WR if they trade for Joe Alt.

There are so many good WRs to be had in this draft cycle and if they went all in for this LT… even if Joe Alt did somehow manage to slip down to pick #9… the Chiefs would be taking themselves out of contention for all other position player prospects and then the question becomes: can everyone live with that? I know I can’t, but that’s just me.

Daniel Jeremiah came out with his top ten mock draft and he has Joe Alt going at #7 to the Titans, so this whole idea of the Chiefs making a move up for him may be a moot point:

While I’d love to see Joe Alt — and his family — back in Kansas City, it just doesn’t look like it’s in the cards.

Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne