heard a few coaches now say very, very little of it matters. The underwear Olympics are just that, a show for the fans. They tell them to have fun and don't hurt themselves. They watch the tape of what actually happened when they play football. Of course, there can be a tie breaker on a couple of guys that are similar, this guy was just stronger and faster type of deal.

Analytic guys have examined what traits of offensive lineman have proved to be the best predictors of future success in the NFL and he said the 2 components that stood out were length and the 40 yard dash. He admitted he couldn’t explain why the 40 was a good predictor but it’s something that the analytic guys view as pretty important.

He also raved about Alt’s athletic ability and said in a different draft he probably would be a top 3 pick.

If you're an offensive tackle with a huge gut, you're not running a Joe Alt 40. Alt is pretty lean and muscular. That's what you want.

yes, I'm joking

which is actually the basis of why they originally started testing 40 times.
The theory was that for marginal players, 40 times would be the deciding point on making the team, if the player could contribute on special teams.

It's evolved into the beat-all end-all of who to draft, but was never intended to be so.

The perennially good teams draft mainly on college film. Alt has a ton of great film.