Pivotal questions at NFL draft

No QBs rated as potential franchise players

Which t eams will scoop up the best available quarterbacks? And when?

Those still are the two most compelling questions heading into Round 1 of the NFL Draft on Thursday night ( 8 p. m. EDT, TSN2 and NFL Network).

For months we’ve been hearing that although this year’s QB class probably is above average in overall talent, the number ready to play right away is zero. They’re promising, but too green. Here’s where this gets fun. Three teams definitely need a better quarterback right away: the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers and New York Jets.

Three others — the Chicago Bears, Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills — might find themselves in the same position before the 2017 season plays out, if they aren’t there already. Because Mike Glennon is a stopgap in Chicago, Blake Bortles seems to be fast bombing out in Jacksonville, and the Bills’ own GM didn’t even want Tyrod Taylor four months ago.

Three other teams wringing the last drops of usefulness from their longtime, long-tooth gunslingers — the Los Angeles Chargers with Phil Rivers, New Orleans Saints with Drew Brees and Arizona Cardinals with Carson Palmer — surely would love to draft an ace shot of the future.

So the demand is there. Even if the supply ought to be on layaway.

But here’s the intrigue. All nine of the above clubs possess picks in the top half of the first round: the Browns No. 1 overall, the Niners No. 2, Bears No. 3, Jaguars No. 4, Jets No. 6, Chargers No. 7, Bills No. 10, Saints No. 11, Browns again at No. 12 and the Cardinals No. 13.

Barring trades, all will submit a selection before the draft is two hours, 15 minutes old. You’ve got to think at least one will gulp hard and take a flyer on one of the potential phenoms of the future: Mitchell Trubisky, Deshaun Watson, DeShone Kizer, Patrick Mahomes II, Davis Webb or Nathan Peterman.

Maybe two or three teams will. Or even more than that, as happened in the 2011 draft when four QBs were taken within the first 12 picks.

Since 2011, only 11 of the 30 passers selected among the Top 5 QBs in any year are still NFL starters. And two of those 11 — Glennon in Chicago and Bortles in Jacksonville — aren’t exactly seen as long-term locks.

Conversely, we all know that with each passing year this century, a team’s chances for success rest ever more on the worthiness of its passer.

“You’re spinning your wheels if you don’t have a quarterback in this league,” ESPN’s longtime draft analyst Mel Kiper said.

Indeed, it’s maybe no longer a case of why would a team ever over- reach for a potential saviour QB — but why not?