PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia Eagles’ long journey to the top of the NFL draft is about to end.

If the Los Angeles Rams select Cal quarterback Jared Goff, as expected, with the No. 1 pick in the 2016 draft, the Eagles will select North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz. By doing so, they will begin the era of Andy Reid acolyte Doug Pederson with a nearly perfect copy of Reid’s own era.

In 1999, with the No. 2 pick in the draft, first-year coach Reid selected quarterback Donovan McNabb. Over the next decade, the Eagles won 10 playoff games and went to one Super Bowl.

Since McNabb departed in 2010, the Eagles have not won a single playoff game. They endured the bitter end of the Reid era and the bumpy Chip Kelly detour before attempting to get back on track with Pederson. To give Pederson a shot at the 6-foot-5, 237-pound Wentz, Eagles personnel chief Howie Roseman made three trades.

Roseman unloaded Kelly acquisitions Byron Maxwell, DeMarco Murray and Kiko Alonso, plus five draft picks, to move from No. 13 overall to No. 8 and finally to No. 2.

There is a mixture of anticipation and trepidation as the Eagles prepare to turn their most important job over to Wentz.

Anticipation because the Eagles have learned and relearned the hard lesson that a team is going nowhere without a quarterback capable of leading the way. Since McNabb was traded, the Eagles have started Michael Vick, Kevin Kolb, Nick Foles, Mark Sanchez and Sam Bradford at quarterback.

With that group of quarterbacks, the Eagles’ record was 49-47 over six seasons. That is the definition of mediocrity. Twice, the Eagles reached the playoffs. Twice, they lost their first postseason game.

After the second of those losses, Kelly took the Eagles to a 10-6 record in 2014. That wasn’t good enough to reach the playoffs, and Kelly decided the team needed to upgrade its quarterback position. Kelly had won 20 games in two seasons with Foles, Vick and Sanchez as starting quarterbacks, but felt sure the only way to improve was to make a change behind center.

That’s what led Kelly to trade Foles and a second-round choice in this year’s draft for Bradford. But in their first year together, Kelly and Bradford went 7-9. Bradford missed two of those games because of injuries. Kelly missed one because he was fired the week before the season finale.

Enter Roseman and Pederson, who were determined to succeed where Kelly failed. They signed Bradford to a new, two-year contract. They signed free-agent backup Chase Daniel, who was coached by Pederson in Kansas City for the past three years. Meanwhile, Roseman methodically moved up in the draft for a shot at Wentz.

As for the trepidation, that is very real, too. North Dakota State is an NCAA FCS program (formerly known as Division I-AA). Besides playing in a lower level than Goff and other potential draft choices, Wentz started only 23 games in his college career. He didn’t start until his junior year and he missed half his senior season with a broken wrist.

The now-Los Angeles Rams looked at the quarterbacks available and appear to have settled on Goff as the No. 1 pick. So they passed on Wentz.

The Cleveland Browns agreed to trade the No. 2 pick. That means they also passed on Wentz.

Those are teams that have been wrong about quarterbacks before, but still, there are always doubts about high draft picks -- especially quarterbacks.

In the past 20 years, these 13 quarterbacks have been selected in the top five picks of the draft: Peyton Manning, Donovan McNabb, Michael Vick, Carson Palmer, Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, Matt Ryan, Matthew Stafford, Cam Newton, Andrew Luck, Blake Bortles, Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota. Four of them have reached the Super Bowl. Another half-dozen still have a chance.

In the past 20 years, these 11 quarterbacks have also been selected in the top five picks of the NFL draft: Ryan Leaf, Tim Couch, Akili Smith, David Carr, Joey Harrington, Alex Smith, Vince Young, JaMarcus Russell, Mark Sanchez, Sam Bradford and Robert Griffin III. Some are outright busts -- human cautionary tales -- while a few still have a chance to rewrite their legacies. But all have moved on from the original team that drafted them.

The Eagles will try to improve Wentz’s chances for success by allowing him to develop slowly behind Bradford and Daniel. They will strive for stability with Pederson and offensive coordinator Frank Reich running the offense.

Nothing is certain, though, except that the Eagles’ big day has finally arrived.