We’ll find out today if Brisbane’s Jesse Williams is selected in the first round of the NFL Draft, which takes place in Radio City Music Hall in New York. Even if the 147kg defensive tackle, who was a key performer for college champions Alabama, doesn’t make it into the first round, the projections have it that he won’t fall far beyond the second.

The draft itself has become a cottage industry – you get the impression sometimes that there are people who don’t follow football, but do obsess about the draft. On one level, it makes sense why there is such widespread interest. The entire fan base of the league has something at stake (by contrast, not every team makes the finals), and every supporter comes away from the day with hope.

Coverage of the NFL Draft has become a year-round affair, linked as it is with the college game, and it has developed its own lingo. It’s why even the casual fan can look at Williams and recognise the markers of a player liable to go late-first or somewhere in the second: he’s a big body, a space-eater in the middle of the line, but lacks the upfield penetration that distinguishes the really good prospects at his position (it also doesn’t help his case that there’s a fair bit of talent at his position this year). In any case, we’re thinking he’ll have a better NFL career than Colin Scotts. Watch out today and tomorrow for where Williams lands.