The NFL draft starts this afternoon in New York City, and that's where you'll find Chris Long. In Edgewood, Md., outside Baltimore, Branden Albert will follow the proceedings on TV from his brother's home.

Long and Albert are connected, though, by their friendship and the three years they spent as teammates at the University of Virginia. Each made the all-ACC first team last season, Long at defensive end and Albert at offensive guard. By nightfall today, they should have something else in common: the distinction of being first-round picks and soon-to-be millionaires.

"To share this with him is very special to me," Albert said Wednesday.

The 6-3, 268-pound Long, a consensus All-American last season, could go as high as No. 2, to the St. Louis Rams, and he's expected to be one of the first 10 players taken. Projections for Albert range from No. 5 (Kansas City) to No. 7 (New England) to No. 14 (Chicago) to No. 23 (Pittsburgh).

Only once has Virginia had two players selected in the first round of an NFL draft: in 1997, when linebacker James Farrior went eighth and defensive end Jon Harris 25th. Long and Albert could make history today by both going in the top 10.

"It would mean the world" to see Albert drafted that high, Long told reporters on a teleconference Thursday. "I think what means almost as much to me as where I go is where Branden goes. . . . I keep saying that next to [No. 1 pick] Jake Long he's the best offensive lineman in the draft, and I really mean that.

The growing buzz about the 6-7, 316-pound Albert, who left U.Va. after his junior season, is "well-deserved," Long said, "and I think that would be awesome for the program if we had two guys in the top 10."

Said Albert: "When I came out of school, people projected me as a second-round pick. If I go top five, I'll be happy. If I go top 10, I'll be happy. If I go top 20, I'll be happy."

Cavaliers coach Al Groh will be among Long's guests at the draft. Groh said early selection in the draft "means a lot more for Branden and Chris than it necessarily does for the [U.Va.] program. They're both great success stories -- it's fun to watch and exciting to be part of."

Albert moved to the Baltimore area from Rochester, N.Y., when he was in high school. He spent most of his college career at guard, but he started two games at tackle last season, and that display of versatility raised his stock.

"Teams that are interested don't have to say he's a guard or he's a tackle," Groh said. "If they need a lineman, he's whatever lineman they need him to be."

Long, a graduate of St. Anne's-Belfield School in Charlottesville, has been in New York since the middle of the week, bopping from event to event in a group of elite prospects.

"It's been fun," said Long, who might move to outside linebacker if he's drafted by a team that runs the 3-4 defense.

"I'm just looking at it as a new experience and experience to live only once. This is our moment in the sun this weekend, as somebody put it, and we're all just having fun with it."

As the draft nears, not every member of Long's family has been so relaxed. The eldest of Pro Football Hall of Famer Howie Long's three sons joked about his father's anxiety.

"I think he's more nervous than I am," Chris Long said. "I've been the one kind of like, 'Hey, Dad, just calm down, it'll be all right. Whatever happens, happens. And I'll be better off at the end of the week than I was when I woke up Monday morning. This is going to change my life in a positive way, no matter how.'"