NFL

Rex right not to start struggling safety

With the possible exception of a quarterback throwing repeated mindless interceptions, there is nothing worse for a team than an important player thinking he is playing better than he really is.

That’s when an established coach — or a coach who has a chance to become one — hooks up the jumper cables and turns the ignition but not without being careful to line up positive to positive.

“I know how much this hurts [Kerry Rhodes],” coach Rex Ryan said yesterday of Rhodes’ demotion. “I believe football is first to Kerry.

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“I know he’s embarrassed by this, as am I, quite honestly. But I think he’s gonna respond, I really do.”

Of course, if Rhodes does not, Ryan’s message will be lost, along with the team. Rhodes is too talented and critical to a Jets turnaround to not sooner or later be a starter again. But if he doesn’t return as the old Kerry, there can be no pretending otherwise by Ryan.

The players know before the media knows before the fans know just who is pulling their weight. This can’t be a move made just for show or inevitably Ryan will be shown the door.

A lot of things crossed the reeling Rhodes’ mind Tuesday night about his future here, some of them dark, all of them natural and ultimately healthy. Yesterday he said mostly the right things about having to do better (“I haven’t made the big plays I have before”) mixed with at least one impolitic thing about being singled out because of his status.

“If you make a little more money than other guys, they look for you to step up,” he said. “I’m not saying I’m being a scapegoat, but I don’t know, can’t answer that.”

To be made an example is not to be made a scapegoat. There have to be consequences for underachievement, in this case humiliation.

“Stop saying benched because I’m not benched,” said Rhodes, who remains in the nickel and dime packages and will bet his last quarter on himself.

“It’s sort of like a kid’s time out,” he said. “Mike Singletary was in this situation when he was younger, other players went through the same thing.

“It’s not a life or death situation. But it’s a situation you have to learn from.”

The defense has changed, along with the personality of the head coach, along with the perception of a hungry, fifth-round draft pick.

Rhodes said he has not lost sight that he is a football player first.

“Twitter is 20 minutes out of the day, that could be 50 messages,” Rhodes said. “How many commercials have you seen me in, how many magazines?

“If I do anything, it’s on Tuesday, my day off. If I was one of the guys who didn’t do anything to further my career after football, they would be like ‘that guy is stupid, why is he just banking on football?’

“I can’t help the perception, all I can do is say ‘football got me to where I am, and I’m here to play.’

“I have done a lot for this team and in this league,” Rhodes added. “The coach doesn’t think you are doing enough for your team, you start to question yourself as an individual and player.”

He will figure it out. Meantime, human nature being what it is, players are constantly, subtlety, trying to figure out the limits of a coach’s patience. After six losses in seven games, Ryan’s arrived in the form of a roundhouse left staggering one of the team’s best and most underachieving players.

Yesterday, Ryan already was trying to bring Rhodes back with the right hand, the stronger one, what good coaches do.

jay.greenberg@nypost.com