PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia Eagles' offseason centered on following the plan Andy Reid followed back in 1999, a blueprint thought lost forever when Veterans Stadium was imploded in 2003.

And maybe Reid’s blueprint did disappear under layers of concrete and dust, because the 2016 Eagles aren’t following the 1999 plan. Not really.

In 1999, Reid came to Philadelphia from Green Bay. In free agency, the Eagles signed backup quarterback Doug Pederson, who had worked with Reid with the Packers. Pederson, Reid declared, would be the Eagles’ starting quarterback in 1999.

With that part of the plan established, Reid and the personnel staff began sorting through the quarterbacks who were available in that year’s draft. The one they drafted with the No. 2 overall pick would be the franchise quarterback Reid would build around. Pederson would start until the rookie was ready.

That was the plan. There was no Sam Bradford in that plan. That’s because there was no equivalent to Bradford on the team that Reid inherited.

The 1998 Eagles were a disaster, a 3-13 team that looked comically inept in most games. After a tumultuous offseason, Bobby Hoying got off to a 1-6 start at quarterback. Koy Detmer and Rodney Peete started the rest of the way.

When Reid arrived, Hoying and Peete were out. Detmer survived, but only as a third-team quarterback.

In 2016, Pederson was hired as head coach. He wanted to bring his backup quarterback from Kansas City along, and the Eagles signed Chase Daniel to a three-year, $21-million contract. They then began figuring out a way to move up in the draft for one of the quarterbacks they believed could be their next franchise guy.

If that had been the whole story, Pederson and the Eagles would have been following Reid’s plan perfectly. Daniel would begin the season as the starter, meanwhile helping Carson Wentz learn the offense. When Wentz was ready, Daniel would step back and let the kid run the team.

A few days before signing Daniel in free agency, though, the Eagles worked out a two-year contract extension with Bradford. The deal included an $11 million signing bonus and a total of $22 million in guaranteed money.

If the 1998 Eagles had traded for Drew Bledsoe and then resigned him for big money in 1999, then Reid’s plan would look like the current plan. But none of that happened. Reid focused on two quarterbacks: Pederson and Donovan McNabb. He certainly didn’t invest millions of guaranteed dollars in a third quarterback.

If the current Eagles had let Bradford hit free agency and move on, they would have been taking a risk. For one thing, they would have gotten just one season out of a quarterback they surrendered Nick Foles and a second-round pick to acquire.

For another, they would have Daniel and Mark Sanchez on their roster and only the No. 13 pick in the 2016 draft to use on a rookie quarterback. That would have added a level of urgency in the trade talks that allowed the Eagles to move up to No. 8 and then to No. 2.

And with Daniel and Sanchez on their depth chart, other teams might have sensed that urgency and taken advantage of it. The cost to trade up might have increased beyond where the Eagles were willing to go.

Nevertheless, Bradford’s contract means more than just the numbers included in it. In the NFL, a contract is an expression of a team’s commitment to a player. If the Eagles had offered Bradford a one-year deal for the veteran minimum, that would have sent one message. Offering him $35 million over two years, with $22 million guaranteed, sent quite a different message.

That message: Bradford is the Eagles’ starting quarterback. With that established, logic dictates, they would use free agency and the draft to fill other needs. That would give Bradford the tools necessary to deliver what every franchise quarterback is expected to deliver: victories.

Bradford has drawn a lot of criticism for his reaction to the Eagles’ plan to draft Wentz. And some of that is understandable. Viewed one way, Bradford is a quarterback with a fat bank account and a slim list of accomplishments. He should be grateful for this new generous contract and do his job.

But the key here is that the Eagles -- not Bradford -- created the situation. If they hadn’t offered Bradford the contract, he couldn’t have accepted it. He wouldn’t have taken the contract to mean that he had the chance to be the Eagles’ long-term quarterback.

The Eagles sent Bradford a very misleading message with that contract. They could have avoided that by allowing Bradford to walk in free agency.

In short, the Eagles created this situation when they deviated from Reid’s 1999 blueprint. Reid waved goodbye to Hoying and Peete. He signed Pederson, drafted McNabb and began the Eagles’ new era with a clean slate.

It was a pretty good plan. The Eagles would have been better off if they had followed it.