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Then again, when you're one of the top defensive backs in the NFL, leading the league with 18 interceptions since the start of the 2006 season, you get some leeway.
In other words, to some degree, the Eagles are letting Asante be Asante.
"What we've done a little bit is just let him do some of his stuff that's made him such a good football player," Johnson said yesterday at the NovaCare Complex. "It's not like a rookie where you say, 'Do this, do that.'
"The biggest thing for him is just learning the defense and proper leverage and alignment, and where his help is. That's what you have to learn, but we're still going to let him be Asante, too."
The mix of theory and ability is working out well. Samuel, who signed a six-year, $57.14 million contract on the first day of free agency, has two interceptions in his first three games as an Eagle, and he still regrets not having more after dropping a certain pick in the opener against St. Louis.
Although he missed 12 days of training camp with a right-hamstring injury, the 5-foot-10, 185-pound cornerback seems not to have missed a beat. And he's doing it his way.
"They allow me to play to my strengths," Samuel said. "It's a good thing for me, a good thing for the defense. I like to play my style. I like to make plays. I just want to continue to do that and put myself in the best position possible to do that."
Specifics on his style, however, are difficult to come by.
"I can't tell you guys, because then you'll tell everybody," he told a crowd of reporters around his locker. "You've got to watch the film. Just watch me. I might be doing some things different than other people are doing. It's just my style of football, how I like to play."
It's a good style. In his last two seasons in New England, Samuel picked off 10 passes in 2006 and six the following year. He also had six career returns for touchdowns.
Now he's finding his way in the Eagles' secondary - a process that will continue Sunday night against the Chicago Bears - with assistance from teammates Brian Dawkins, Quintin Mikell and Sean Considine, all safeties.
"Those guys," Samuel said, "have been a great help to me - actually communicating with me, helping me understand the defense and giving me the calls so I can be playing the right plays. Without them, I don't know where I'd be. I'd probably be a little lost."
Dawkins has corrected him the few times he has been out of position, but Samuel has been a quick learner, a trait he developed having to decipher the Patriots' defense devised by Belichick, their head coach.
Asked to compare defenses, Samuel said the Eagles were more aggressive. He said Johnson liked to blitz more and put his people in a spot to make plays when the opposing quarterback needs to get rid of the ball quickly.
That plays to Samuel's strength and helps the Eagles, last in the NFL last season with 19 takeaways.
"He's been such a playmaker as far as his ball skills," Johnson said. "He's probably a very unique guy right there."
Samuel said that he embraces the playmaker role, that he'd rather not be a corner whom opponents like to avoid.
"When they're not looking your way, that's not good to me," he said. "What's good to me is making plays on the ball and helping our team with game-changing plays."
That's what Eagles fans expect of a guy who has been a part of two Super Bowl champions and received megabucks to try to help their team get there, too. That's fine with Samuel.
"Like [Miami linebacker] Joey Porter says, 'I don't want to be one of the guys known as getting a lot of money and not showing up on the field,' " Samuel said. "I have a lot of pride about myself, and I want to be the best. I want to be the best ever to play the game, so I'm just going to continue to work, stay humble, and go make plays."
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