Did Kerry Rhodes play in his last game as a Jet on Sunday? It's possible. But Darrelle Revis hopes that isn't the case.

"We need those guys," Revis said Monday when asked about Rhodes and cornerback Lito Sheppard's futures with the Jets. "We need them. We had the No. 1 defense in the league for a reason."

And Rhodes is on the bubble for a reason. Benched by Rex Ryan at one point, Rhodes reclaimed his starting safety job. But the five-year veteran wouldn't say if he wants to come back next season.

"I really don't want to talk about that right now," he said. "I don't want to put any kind of note, either positive or sour, at the end of this. We had a good run and I want to appreciate that right now."

Rhodes praised Ryan, calling him "the personality that fits us."

"Whenever you have a guy believe in you, it's a great thing,'' Rhodes said. "We believed in him as the season went on. A lot of the things he said came to fruition, even though we didn't meet the president. We got pretty close. We believed in him and he believed in us, which is a good thing."

But later, Rhodes did call the Jets "they" when talking about what he expects to happen next season. "Don't read into that too much," he cautioned.

Later in the day, Ryan said not to read too much into some cryptic comments he made when he was asked about Rhodes' future as a Jet.

"This one I don't really want to talk about much, because there's an individual thing that Kerry and I have talked about," he said. "I'd rather just keep it individual . . . It's a private conversation that we've had, that we are the only ones that know what was said in there. Trust me, it's not a bad thing.

". . . My conversation with Kerry is different than my conversation with Braylon [Edwards] or anybody else. I'm just going to keep it between us."

Asked when he had the conversation with Rhodes, Ryan said: "I've had it today and I had it eight weeks ago."

As for Sheppard, he is due a $10-million bonus in March; the Jets will not pay that for a player passed over for Dwight Lowery in Sunday's 30-17 AFC Championship Game loss to the Colts.

"I just think it was a matchup thing," Ryan said. "We felt that our best matchup was putting Lowery in there. We won the because of some of the plays Lowery made."

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