Virginia has had a player selected higher than Chris Long in the NFL draft, but not in the past 66 years.

Long went to the St. Louis Rams with the second overall pick -- the highest he could be drafted following the announcement Tuesday that Miami, with the first pick, had come to terms with Michigan offensive lineman Jake Long.

By the time the draft started at 3 p.m., ESPN already was reporting that St. Louis had settled on Chris Long, although more than five minutes elapsed before commissioner Roger Goodell announced the choice.

"I was nervous when the clock hit seven minutes to go," Long told reporters on a conference call. "I wanted to go to St. Louis all along. When I knew that I was going to be a St. Louis Rams, it was just a huge adrenaline rush. It's the best moment of my life."

Teams were allotted 10 minutes for their first-round selections, but ESPN analyst Chris Mortensen reported that Rams officials had come to a consensus after taking time Friday for a round of golf.

"I don't want to use the over-used term, 'no-brainer,'" Rams head coach Scott Linehan said. "But I guess I'm going to have to. It's just going to be a great fit for us and a great fit for the city. I'm a little geeked up right now."

Atlanta used the third pick in the first round to select quarterback Matt Ryan from Boston College, marking the first time since 1975 that two ACC players had been chosen in the first three.

For the first time since 1997, Virginia also had a second player chosen in the first round, although offensive guard Branden Albert waited nearly two hours before he went to Kansas City with the 15th pick

Four times, ESPN cameras captured a pensive Albert at his brother's home in Edgewood, Md., as he waited for the call.

"I was projected to go in the top 10 or whatnot," Albert told ESPN News host Rece Davis. "You're expecting one thing and another thing is happening and you're going through a lot of emotions. But, you know it's going to work out for the best, which it did."

Some projections had Albert going to Kansas City as earlier as the fifth pick. Once a run on offensive linemen began, the Chiefs weren't going to let him slip away.

Kansas City's decision to trade up for the 15th pick came moments after ESPN reporter Sal Paolantonio said that Philadelphia, which had the 19th pick, was interested in Albert.

Before interviewing Albert, an ESPN News panel said that Albert might have suffered because of comparisons to D'Brickashaw Ferguson, a former UVa offensive tackle who was the fourth player chosen in the 2006 draft.

"I think Branden Albert gets a bad label because D'Brickashaw Ferguson has come into the league and been a little bit soft, if you will," analyst Todd McShay said. "At the end of the day, if you watch Albert on film, he likes to finish blocks. He's a physical football player."

Before Saturday, the only Virginia player who had been selected higher Ferguson was Bill Dudley, a member of the college and pro football halls of fame who was the No. 1 pick in the 1942 draft. Long now occupies the second spot and has the distinction of being picked earlier than his father, Howie, a member of the NFL Hall of Fame.

Howie Long was a second-round pick in 1981, when he was the 48th player chosen overall.

Chris Long was joined at Radio City Music Hall by his parents, including his mom, Diane, and UVa head coach Al Groh.

Longtime NFL draft analyst Mel Kiper had LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey as the top player on his board at the time Long was selected. Dorsey slipped to Kansas City with the fifth pick, but there was little second-guessing from ESPN's myriad cast of reporters.

"Going one-on-one will be something [Long] didn't do at Virginia," Kiper said. "He had to play through a lot of resistance in their 3-4 defense.

"He's instinctive, locates the ball, has great awareness and, I think, is very underrated athletically. This kid, athletically, is as good as most of the defensive ends who have come in the NFL as high picks in the last four or five years."

Linehan immediately elevated Long to the top of the depth chart at defensive end, but Long wasn't having any of it.

"I'm going to have to earn whatever I get," Long said. "When I grew up watching people miss out on camp, I didn't get it. I want to put my best foot forward and I don't want to show up when people already have started working."