Some tasty leftovers from this week's NFL meetings in Palm Beach, Fla.:

The rest of the league is taking notes on the Bengals and how they're keeping together their NFL-best pass offense with last month's mega deals for wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to go along with the Xs and Os of head coach Zac Taylor’s staff.

"They've been playing at a high level for a long time. That offense is dynamic and we look to study them each and every year," said new Bears head coach Ben Johnson, who could have been on a preliminary short list for a job on Taylor's first staff.

"Zac's done a phenomenal job. He and I have a relationship," said Johnson of their days with the Dolphins 10 years ago. "We talk a little back and forth about scheme. High-level players and high-level coaching usually ends up scoring a lot of points in this league."

Rams head coach Sean McVay, who knows all about Higgins and his MVP performance in Super Bowl LVI, is used to going against the grain in order to keep an offense together. So it didn't surprise him when the Bengals opted to pay both 1-A receivers.

"Rare situations dictate rare responses," said McVay, who also worked with Taylor pre-Cincinnati. "Special players, special quarterback. The rapport they have and the dynamic they've had when all three are doing their thing, they're as scary as anybody. I was happy for Zac that they got it done and it worked out.

"They're fun to watch. I know Zac is sleeping better at night."

Some believe the impact of the Cincy offense can be seen in how AFC North teams responded this offseason. Former Pittsburgh tackle Max Starks, now a radio analyst for the Steelers, believes he saw it in his town when the Steelers swung a trade for a George Pickens running mate.

"I thought it was a signal flare when you see Tee and Ja'Marr do what they did," said Starks, son of Bengals Super Bowl legend Ross Browner. "Hey, 'We've got to get our own Twin Towers as well.' That's why you're going to get D.K. Metcalf to combat that. The bigger issue is going to be, do you have enough corners to block those types of guys.

"The fact they made it work let's you know anything is possible. That's where you see a DeAndre (Hopkins) going to Baltimore as another clear sign … It's a positive sign for the Bengals and kind of gave a signal flare to the rest of the division, 'You need to come up to our level.'"

Johnson, who brings his team into Paycor this season, has been noticing more than the high-powered scheme and recently talked to Taylor about balancing play-calling with his other head man duties.

"Zac's strength," Johnson said, "(is) he's been able to bring in a lot of guys he can empower. I know he trusts his coordinators on offense. He spoke to me about that just the other day. As a head coach, you get drawn in certain directions, but as a coordinator, they really set the table where (the head coach) can catch up quickly, and so he's been able to do that. A lot of play-callers as head coaches get lost in the fog a little bit and he's been able to navigate that in a very positive way."

Another guy who worked with Taylor and gets to play him in 2025, Packers head coach Matt LeFleur, had no choice but to note the double signing.

"It's rare that teams can pay two, but they did it and for a lot of good reasons," LaFleur said. "These guys are ballers."

LAMBEAU LEAP

The Bengals head to Lambeau Field to catch up with LaFleur this season, and new Bengals defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery brings his own history to the historic confines.

Before Montgomery coached the New England front last season, he spent nine years in Green Bay working for three head coaches. LaFleur, his last one, sounds like he misses him.

"J-Mo is a great football coach. Great technician. He knows ball," LaFleur said. "He's a guy that's going to teach those guys the right way to play with their hands and the fundamentals. Great technique. They're going to recognize back-field sets and be able to anticipate plays that are coming to them. I hold him in high regard. He's a really good coach."

MORE YOUNG GUNS

Here come Johnson, 38, and the Bears, and if he's not on the Zac Taylor Coaching Tree, he's at least in the same forest. When Taylor was the quarterbacks coach with the Dolphins, Johnson was his assistant for three seasons.

"Ben's one of my favorite people. I've been around smart football coaches, and he's earned everything that he's gotten in this profession. He's really worked, I mean worked, from the bottom of this league all the way to the top," Taylor said.

"He really changed the technology for us, the way that we operated with our playbook and drew the plays and Ben's the best in the world at all that."

Taylor has his own young gun from the same generation in 38-year-old offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher. If Pitcher hadn't been here when Taylor arrived in 2019, Johnson may have been. Pitcher was doing what Johnson was doing and impressing everyone at no matter what job he did.

Taylor addressed the topic as he talked about the challenges of building a staff.

"I was fortunate enough, Dan Pitcher's job as an assistant receiver coach was one that I would've easily been able to hire Ben Johnson for or somebody I knew," Taylor said. "So I could have brought in a lot of really good guys for that. Instead, I was advised that Dan's a great coach, you should give him an opportunity.

"I felt good about the feedback I'd gotten about him. So we kept him. And he's a guy I didn't know that I retained who I think is one of the best coaches I've been around."

FUTURE BOOK SIGNING

Another Taylor-Made strength is the ability to read his locker room and to get players to buy into his program. With the draft three weeks away, Taylor talked about handling the question of character in the draft.

"I don't need perfect people to walk into the locker room as a rookie. I just need them to be willing to grow and evolve and do things the way that we believe it needs to be done," Taylor said. "And when you're willing to do that, those are sometimes the guys you end up being that proudest of and the happiest for when they take that next step.

"Because you saw maybe the immaturity when they got here and where they've evolved to. There are countless of players who are household names that we know and love. Their first year, they wouldn't want a book written on them about how they're maybe late to a meeting or missed a walkthrough. I've got plenty of those stories some day with their approval to put in a story somewhere."