NFL Draft 2018: On eve of selection, no one’s sure which QB will be taken first

ARLINGTON, Texas — The decade’s first quarterback mystery happened in 2014, when the Jaguars stealthily drafted Blake Bortles No. 3 overall. The second great secret took place last year, NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said, when Bears general manager Ryan Pace decided to trade up for Mitch Trubisky.

“We saw last year with the Bears and Trubisky, no one [but Pace] in the [Bears’] building knew what was going to happen — and they make that pick,” he said Wednesday. “Now [Browns general manager] John Dorsey has said, ‘Anything you can do, I can do better,’ and kept everything close to the vest.”

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The Browns, with the first overall pick, will choose from among four quarterbacks: USC’s Sam Darnold, Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield, UCLA’s Josh Rosen and Wyoming’s Josh Allen.

No one knows exactly what they’ll do.

“When you have four quarterbacks still being mentioned for the first overall pick,” Jeremiah said, “how do you sort through that?”

Darnold, probably the favorite to go first, said he has gotten advice from former USC star — and onetime Bears quarterback — Mark Sanchez: “Hey, man, be yourself. Just know that you’re the face of the franchise.”

That crown has weighed in the monthslong debate about who’s best-suited to be the top quarterback taken. Mayfield was once tackled by a police officer and also grabbed his crotch to taunt Kansas football players. Former UCLA coach Jim Mora Jr. even stumped for Darnold, the school’s rival, to go to Cleveland instead of Rosen, which was odd.

Rosen, meanwhile, seemed ready for some closure.

“You guys have got to stop asking me about who’s going 1, 2 and 3,” he said. “I don’t care. I just want to play football and belong to a team. That’s all it is. I want to play football.”

While Allen’s arm strength could be custom-made for the winds off Lake Erie, Mayfield — who was more successful in college than the other three — seems to be gaining traction.

“The media has more questions about Baker than the NFL does,” Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt said. “Most teams are very comfortable with Baker and his personality. The thing they’re not as comfortable with, is, in the last 15 years, the only quarterback under 6-1 to be selected in the first round is Johnny Manziel. That’s their biggest hang-up: his stature.”

Then there’s Lamar Jackson, the Louisville quarterback who could end up the heir to the league’s dynasty. The 2016 Heisman Trophy winner has met twice with the Patriots, who draft No. 23 and 31, and even made deadpan coach Bill Belichick crack up.

“He was just giggling, started laughing,” he said. “I was like, ‘Oh, snap.’ ”

Stranger things have happened. They might Thursday, too.

“It feels like it could get kinda nuts,” Jeremiah said.