Mark Sanchez goes in a New York minute

Memo to the half a dozen Jersey boys selected Saturday in the opening round of the NFL draft: Leave a light on for Mark Sanchez.

The USC quarterback now will play his home games in East Rutherford, N.J.

Whereas teams from all over the country snapped up six players born in the Garden State -- Eugene Monroe (Jacksonville), B.J. Raji (Green Bay), Knowshon Moreno (Denver), Brian Cushing (Houston), Donald Brown (Indianapolis) and Kenny Britt (Tennessee) -- Madison Avenue Mark is headed to a garden spot.

Born to run . . . and gun.

So how did it happen? The New York Jets made a trade with Cleveland to move into the No. 5 spot and select the Trojans standout, clearly intending to hand him the job that belonged to Brett Favre last season.

There was no languishing in the green room with TV cameras poised to catch every grimace, no twisting in the wind the way quarterbacks Brady Quinn, Matt Leinart and Aaron Rodgers did in years past. Sanchez, who watched from home in Southern California, barely had time to settle into his chair before the call came.

These days that seems to be the objective of the NFL, which moved the proceedings along at a record pace -- only aided by the Detroit Lions, who took the mystery out of the No. 1 pick by signing Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford on Friday.

“It was nice to have a nice night’s sleep last night knowing I was going to go No. 1 today to Detroit,” said Stafford, who signed a six-year, $78-million contract.

The rest of the first round went in a New York minute -- 3 hours 23 minutes, to be exact, seven minutes faster than last year’s record pace. The goal is to transform the draft into even more of a made-for-TV event, one expected to vastly out-draw the NBA playoffs, baseball, and every other sport.

Apparently, the draft cruised along a tad too fast for the Dallas Cowboys, who didn’t have their first pick until midway through the second round. With only seven minutes between selections in the second, the Cowboys didn’t move quickly enough at No. 51 and the clock expired on them. As boos poured down from the upper reaches of Radio City Music Hall, where leather-lunged fans of various teams watched the event live, the Cowboys traded their pick to Buffalo before Cleveland could jump ahead in line. (Dallas got the Bills’ picks in the third and fourth rounds, so will not pick until today.)

As for the city of Dallas, it was a banner day. Players from there made history when three of them -- Stafford, No. 2 pick Jason Smith (St. Louis) and No. 10 Michael Crabtree (San Francisco) -- became the most from a city to be selected in the top 10. It also marked the first time the players taken first and second had the same hometown.

“I bet Dallas is going crazy right now,” Crabtree said. “I can’t wait to go back.”

Saturday, Crabtree couldn’t wait to get a phone call. He expected to go sooner, certainly ahead of Maryland receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, who went seventh to Oakland.

“I always feel like I’m the best,” said Crabtree, whose stocked dipped a bit at the scouting combine when a stress fracture in a foot prevented him from running. “I work to be the best. I have some big shoes to fill when I go to the 49ers with Jerry Rice. I’m looking forward to that, too.”

Still, three top 10s from Dallas isn’t half bad, prompting Crabtree to proclaim: “There’s nothing like Texas football.”

Another trio fell short in its bid for history. USC linebackers Cushing, Clay Matthews and Rey Maualuga were hoping to become the first three players from the same school and position to go in the opening round. Cushing and Matthews (Green Bay) made it, but Maualuga slipped into the second round, where he was selected 38th by Cincinnati -- the same club that used its first pick on fellow Trojans linebacker Keith Rivers a year ago.

As for Cushing, he was pleased to be the first of the Trojans linebackers off the board.

“It feels good,” he said. “I was kind of expecting it, and would have been a little disappointed if it didn’t happen. But I guess I’ve got those bragging rights for a little bit.”

If that move was predictable, others raised some eyebrows. The Raiders followed the early selection of Heyward-Bey -- thought by many to be the third-best receiver -- by taking Ohio safety Michael Mitchell in the second round, a player some evaluators projected in either the sixth or seventh round.

Florida State defensive end Everette Brown slipped out of the first round, and Ohio State running back Beanie Wells almost did, getting a call from Arizona at 31.

San Diego used the 16th pick on outside linebacker/defensive end Larry English, who many scouts thought would go in the late first or early second. Few people can knock the evaluating track record of Chargers General Manager A.J. Smith, however, who did a good job of keeping his plans under wraps.

Finally, in another bit of history, two centers were selected in the first round. That had not happened since 1968.

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sam.farmer@latimes.com