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Green Bay — We pick up “The Other Side” for another season this week with a six-pack of questions for The Star-Ledger's Dom Cosentino.

Cosentino fills us in on whether Geno Smith’s development is real or perceived, how much Chris Johnson has left at this point of his career, the two tackles facing Clay Matthews/Julius Peppers and what the mood is like inside that Rex Ryan-fueled Jets locker room this year.

You can follow Cosentino on Twitter here (as well as his beat partner Daryl Slater) and read all of their Jets coverage at NJ.com.

Q: Rex Ryan was gushing over Geno Smith's development to us on a conference call. Has the young QB improved by leaps and bounds as he describes?

Cosentino: He really has. The Jets, to a man, had said this so much during the offseason and you wondered if it had been a talking point provided by the PR staff. But throughout the preseason, Smith showed an ability to read through his progressions and make good decisions. He did the same against the Raiders, and was effective even against the blitz (7-for-8, per Pro Football Focus).

Smith is also running the ball a lot more — he had been a pocket passer at West Virginia, and until the final month of last season, he had largely been reluctant to take off and go. Now, he does it frequently, and it's helped to open things up for the entire offense.

It's true that many of his throws are close to the line of scrimmage, but part of that is the nature of a West Coast system that's dependent on plays like that. Besides, he was 4-for-6 against the Raiders on throws longer than 10 yards. One caveat: He did turn the ball over twice last week, including an interception he seemed to telegraph, which had been a problem for most of last season.

Q: How much game does Chris Johnson (seen below) --- one of the fastest players ever --- have left at soon-to-be 29 years old?

Cosentino: Plenty. He played much of last season on a torn meniscus. But he had it scoped in January and is back to 100 percent. The speed and the burst are still there, and so is the versatility as a pass catcher. Now, will he rush for 2,000 yards again? Doubt it. But with the Titans, Johnson averaged something like 280 rushes per year. He doesn't have to be that kind of workhorse here to be effective. Chris Ivory brings a barreling, straight-ahead style, Johnson can bounce it outside (without being reluctant to run between the tackles), and Bilal Powell is a mix of both styles. The Jets will use all three, and Johnson in particular can still be lethal in the screen game.

Q: What's the state of the Jets secondary, a group that seems to be in transition from the days of Revis and Cromartie?

Cosentino: It's not 2009 or 2010 anymore, that's for sure. The strength of the Jets' defense is with the front seven, and with the defensive line in particular. The corners are a work in progress. Dee Milliner, a first-round pick last year, has been nursing a high ankle sprain. He could play Sunday, though it's unlikely he'll play every down, or close to it. Last week, they went with Antonio Allen — a converted safety who was an outside linebacker in college—and career backup Darrin Walls. It went well, but mostly because the front seven blitzed rookie Derek Carr quite a bit.

The Jets have tried to compensate by getting creative with their blitzes, and even with personnel. They used outside linebacker Quinton Coples out wide to chip a receiver at the line of scrimmage on a handful of plays last week, and backup wideout Saalim Hakim—maybe the team's fastest player—was used twice in the nickel package, including once as an edge blitzer. Safeties Calvin Pryor and Dawan Landry also were all over the field last week, too. The idea was to throw looks at Carr that he'd never seen before—a Rex Ryan specialty. Obviously, the challenge this week is much different, considering the varied weapons the Packers have on offense. Defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman just described it as "pick your poison."

Q: Green Bay wants to create 1-on-1 match-ups with Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers. How stable are tackles Breno Giacomini and D'Brickashaw Ferguson at this point of their careers?

Cosentino: Ferguson is still playing at a high level, even if it's slightly below where he was earlier in his career. Interestingly, on Chris Ivory's 71-yard touchdown run last week, Ferguson had what Rex described as one of his few bad plays: He backpedaled, and Khalil Mack beat him to the inside. But Ivory hit the hole quickly enough to get past Mack, and the rest of the line took care of it from there. Giacomini isn't quite the player Ferguson is, but he's still capable, though he and right guard Willie Colon are still getting used to working next one another because Colon had been limited by injuries during training camp. Colon, it should be noted, has also been limited this week with a calf injury, though he is expected to play.

Q: A lack of dynamic playmakers hurt the Jets last year — was this addressed with Eric Decker, Johnson, Jace Amaro and others?

Cosentino: Yes, absolutely. There's been a lot of dumb talk out there about Decker not being "a No. 1 receiver" or Johnson not being CJ2K, but what the Jets have been preaching — and what last week's game showed — is that this offense is very much the sum of its parts. They've got a steady group of receivers, a varied running game, a couple of good tight end options, and a quarterback whose strengths work well for the system they run. This is not the Jets offenses of years past, when it couldn't get out of its own way. And don't forget: They also have Michael Vick, whom they used on three (unsuccessful) gadget plays last week, the object of which might have been as much to get teams to have to prepare for that kind of gimmickry as anything else.

Q: The Jets have always fed off of Rex Ryan's swagger. What's the mood in the locker room right now?

Cosentino: It's a confident bunch, and it's been that way much of the summer. Rex is every bit a players' coach, and those players would run through a wall for him. But last year's Jets were a team in transition, with a new GM, a new quarterback, and even a number of new coaches. This year, they're building on that transition. It's way too soon to tell, of course, but there's a genuine sense they're heading in the right direction. The Raiders are awful, and they dominated the Raiders except for some penalties and two costly turnovers. This week's game — at Lambeau, facing Rodgers and that offense, with all its weapons — is a much bigger test. It's also going to be much more of a true test to see just how far the Jets have come.

About Tyler Dunne Tyler Dunne covers the Green Bay Packers. He has been on the beat since 2011, winning awards with the Pro Football Writers of America and Milwaukee Press Club.

(Photo by Associated Press)