ATLANTA — Keegan Bradley met quickly with reporters, shuffling in and out of the media center in less than 10 minutes due to his busy schedule. But the main topic of conversation during that brief time wasn’t his recent triumph at the BMW Championship. No. It was mostly about the Presidents Cup and how the 38-year-old Bradley could make the U.S. team this year.

Captain Jim Furyk will join the American team on Tuesday and pick six more after this week’s Tour Championship. Bradley, next year’s Ryder Cup captain, is currently eighth in the standings, but he would better serve himself and his prospects for next year at Bethpage Black by sitting out that match.

Instead, he should serve as one of Furyk’s assistants. Furyk has already named Kevin Kisner, Stewart Cink and Justin Leonard as vice captains, but it would be beneficial for everyone if he included Bradley as well.

“I’m sure being vice captain would help me as a captain at Bethpage because when you play, your mentality changes a little bit,” Bradley said Tuesday.

“(When you’re playing) you’re more stressed. You think, ‘Oh my goodness, I’ve got that alternate pothole or that hard drive.’ So you’ve got other things on your mind.”

Bradley has not played in a Ryder Cup since 2014 and has only been on the Presidents Cup team once, when he represented Team USA at Muirfield Village in 2013.

A decade has passed since Bradley was part of an American dressing room. It’s not that Bradley has lost that feeling or understanding of how those relationships work, but he would be better off assisting Furyk in the decision-making process. He would learn to lead a team in this exciting competition that will prepare him well for the Ryder Cup next fall.

Still, Bradley is one of the best Americans in the world right now. He comes to East Lake fourth in the FedEx Cup standings and has a great chance of winning the trophy and the $25 million that comes with it.

He knows that too.

“Being on the ropes with these guys, in this fight, in this heat, and remembering how tough this is, and if the situation arises that I’m playing in Bethpage, playing here, playing in the Presidents Cup, it would certainly help me,” Bradley said.

Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images

“I’ve been going back and forth and I think both have their pros and cons. Whatever happens, I have to figure out how to make the best of it.”

There may be a scenario where Bradley makes next year’s Ryder Cup team. He would need to finish in the top six in the Ryder Cup standings, as he previously said he would not select himself as captain. He almost made this year’s team, finishing eighth in the standings. At last week’s BMW Championship, Team USA was finally set when Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay and Sahith Theegala finished in the top six. But now Furyk has to select six captains, and Bradley is one of his possible choices.

“You have to remember that these guys were players too and Jim is a Hall of Fame player. He explained a situation to me; I forgot which Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup it was; he was in a very similar situation to me; he was vice-captain but he was still trying to make the team. So he knows what I’m going through,” Bradley said.

“I think as far as this week (at the Tour Championship) goes, with the different (starting shot) format and so on, it shouldn’t come down to one week whether someone plays a month later. But part of me feels terrible for putting him in that position. But I want to be as open and honest with him as possible, and he was great.”

While Bradley is a patriot, he wants the best for the team. But even though he is one of the top players on the PGA Tour right now, watching the Presidents Cup from the outside, giving Furyk his opinion and learning from these brilliant minds will help the Americans in the long run.

Jack Milko is the golf editor at SB Nations Playing Through. Be sure to check out: @_Playthrough for more golf reports. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well as.