Resting one foot on his locker stool, the Jets' Darrelle Revis leaned forward and rubbed his short black beard.

“Man, you're taking me back,” he said with a smile.

He looked thoughtful as he revisited his past — and contemplated his future. For years, he had set the standard: the cornerback capable of stranding receivers, of any size, on his one-man island.

But he no longer is the undisputed shutdown corner in the NFL, the unquestioned No. 1 at his position. Now, Revis is known by other names in the locker room.

“The G.O.A.T.”

“Uncle Drew.”

“Old Head.”

The playful jabs are signs of respect for the elder statesman, who, at 31, is as much an asset on the field as he is in the locker room. But those nicknames are also indicative of the changing times. And Revis knows it.

During an interview with Newsday, the 10-year veteran discussed being an aging NFL star and why he's considering an eventual position switch to safety.

“You've got to enjoy it and you've got to adjust to the way people view you,” said Revis, a seven-time Pro Bowl player who won the Super Bowl with the New England Patriots in 2014. “It shows you how fast you do grow up in this league and how old you become.

“When I was 24, 25, people were like, ‘You're the shutdown corner.' Now people are like, ‘He's the G.O.A.T. [greatest of all time]' or they call me ‘Uncle Drew,'?” Revis said. “They call me ‘Uncle Buck.' They've got all these crazy ‘Uncle' or older vet-type of names. It's cool, though.”

Revis' training camp dust-up with teammate Brandon Marshall and his two preseason picks in as many games signaled the old Darrelle was back after offseason wrist surgery. “He looks quick, explosive. Everything we had hoped for,” defensive backs coach Joe Danna said.

But as competitive as he is, Revis is a realist.

He has no doubt he can still play cornerback at a high level. But the time will come when that's no longer the case.

“As you get older, you start looking at your own career,” he said. “At some point, I'm not going to be able to play the cornerback position the way I want to play it. I don't want to just be out there playing the cornerback position and hurting the team. I want to continue playing football at a high level.”

Jets coach Todd Bowles — a former NFL safety and Super Bowl champion with the Washington Redskins — said he's “never discussed” a position change with Revis, adding that his view and expectations of his star cornerback haven't changed.

Revis isn't sure when the conversation will be held, but he envisions one day joining the ranks of other great shutdown corners-turned-safeties. In fact, Charles Woodson, a nine-time Pro Bowl participant who retired in January, has been sharing “bits and pieces” of his transition with Revis over the years.

“Playing the corner position, you're out there by yourself,” Revis said. “You have to hold up and play it well. And eventually, you're going to have to say one year, or before the year starts, ‘Hey, I might need to move my position because I feel like I can't play this position anymore.'?”

“I wish I could have the fountain of youth and be 24 years old forever,” he said. “But eventually, as you get older, you have to adjust to what your body's telling you.”

The mentions names as he recalls a time when the Jets were firmly rooted on Long Island.

He remembers the old days at Hofstra and what it felt like to walk through a locker room filled with established NFL players — guys he had watched transition from college to the pros.

“Man, I watched Shaun Ellis at Tennessee, I watched Laveranues [Coles] at Florida State. I watched Chad [Pennington] at Marshall,” Revis said. “So for me, it was — wow. Like, I'm actually here with guys I used to look up to.”

Within the first month of his rookie year in 2007, he earned the nickname “Baby Lockdown” from former Jets safety Kerry Rhodes. Almost a decade later, Revis is the guy young defensive backs still try to imitate.

“Any aspiring NFL corner says he's going to watch Darrelle Revis. And that's the truth,” said rookie cornerback Juston Burris, who studied Revis' highlights on YouTube while in college. “I said that. And I did that. I emulated his game. He's so technically sound. That's what I needed. I needed to look up to that. Having a guy like that in the locker room, being able to lean on him for things because he's been through everything, has been a blessing.”

The fourth-round pick tried not to be too star-struck when he first laid eyes on Revis, a five-time All-Pro, But it wasn't easy. Said Burris: “You're like, ‘Aw man. That's Darrelle Revis.'?”

Revis' bump-and-run coverage is his trademark. But it's his intangibles that could make all the difference for the Jets this season. “He's very helpful on the sidelines,” Bowles, whose defense finished fourth overall in 2015, said in August. “He has a good way of teaching and making them understand it without going through a whole lot of detail. He puts them in position on the field and makes them see things that they wouldn't normally see.”

Revis has had to give up part of the spotlight as the undisputed No. 1 corner to players such as Josh Norman of the Redskins and Richard Sherman of the Seattle Seahawks. And one day, Revis will have to step aside to let the young guys pass. But not yet.

Revis Island beckons.

“Oh, yeah. It's still a main attraction,” Revis said with a laugh. “People still want to come and vacate. So it's still open.”