Maybe, then, the Eagles are onto something similar now. Jim Schwartz has been in the NFL since 1993 when he joined Cleveland as a personnel scout before stepping into the coaching arena in 1996 as an outside linebackers coach with Baltimore. Schwartz has been a position coach, a defensive coordinator, a head coach and then a defensive coordinator again. He knows the game. He's had a lot of success.

He has the defense all to his own.

And Schwartz is excited to get to work in Philadelphia.

"Our job is to find a way to put the players in the best position so that they can do their jobs. That's going to change a little bit. What we did in Buffalo was a little bit different from what we did in Detroit and what was different than I did in Tennessee or the Baltimore Ravens or the Cleveland Browns," Schwartz said. "That's the one thing you learn."

Schwartz's defense is all about creating pressure without blitzing. It was the key to Johnson's masterful defense: Get pressure, or create the illusion of pressure, without sacrificing coverage on the back end. Be aggressive. Take the football away. Play stout defense in the red zone and get off the field on third downs.

Schwartz spent 2015 out of the coaching box, instead working for a few days a week in the NFL offices working with the officials, providing a coach's perspective. He stayed in touch with the game and he's got a good understanding of the Eagles' personnel. The Eagles will play their defensive ends on a tilt at times, many times perhaps, lined up a yard or two outside the shoulder of the offensive tackle or tight end. Schwartz wants to play to the strength of his personnel. He wants to get to the quarterback and he wants to funnel the football to the strength of the defense.

It would appear that the strength of this defense is the interior with Fletcher Cox along the defensive line and, potentially, Jordan Hicks at middle linebacker. It would make sense, maybe, to try to push the football to the middle of the Eagles' defense.

"There are lot of players here that I know very well, that I think are very talented players," Schwartz said. "We'll go through all of that and find out what our strengths are and play to them."

One of the players potentially impacted by the addition of Schwartz is linebacker Connor Barwin, who came off the edge mostly as a pass rusher in the team's 3-4 front. Should the Eagles use more of a four-man front with three linebackers, where would Barwin fit in? Would he put his hand in the dirt and come hard off the edge? Would he use his long arms and frame as a strongside linebacker and cover tight ends at times? Johnson enjoyed some of his greatest success with Carlos Emmons at the SAM position from 2000-03.

"I'm very excited about Jim Schwartz. I remember meeting with him coming out of the (NFL Scouting) Combine. I've had plenty of friends who have played for him and obviously I've seen the success he's had in this league, especially the success he's had as a coordinator," Barwin said. "I don't think it will be as different as people think. We ran a 3-4 with (Bill Davis as defensive coordinator) but we were in a 4-3 over 40 percent of the snaps, if not more. I'll probably be playing defensive end and if I do play linebacker it will probably be up on the line, like I was on first down here."