FOXBORO – This likely isn’t a phrase that’s uttered too often in regards to a quarterback with three Super Bowl rings, a supermodel wife, bulging bank account and is considered one of the best ever at his position, but:

Poor Tom Brady.

Poor Tom Brady because after the out-of-this-world performance he put forth in 2007 – 4,806 yards passing, 68.9 percent completion rate, an NFL-record 50 touchdowns against just eight interceptions and a quarterback rating of 117.2 – everyone thought it would just be easy for him to replicate that when he returned to the field again.

Just because Brady, Randy Moss and Wes Welker made things look easy for long stretches during that memorable ’07 season doesn’t mean that it is.

And as much as New England Patriots fans like to believe that Brady is their version of Superman, not even Superman could return to the field after nearly a full year away dealing with reconstructive knee surgery and look exactly the same right from the get-go.

But that’s what was expected of Brady.

And after his fourth-quarter heroics against the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football in Week One, those assumptions seemed to come to fruition.

When he struggled six days later against the hated Jets, and Superman wasn’t looking so superhuman, the worries began.

In case you’ve been gnashing your teeth about a certain Call (you know the one; you’ll get no further details here) for the last four days, an announcement: Tom Brady is having one heck of a season.

His numbers aren’t going to be quite as eye-popping as they were in 2007, but if having the second-best statistical season of a Hall of Fame career isn’t your idea of impressive, well, then, you need to put down the Madden controllers, because that’s one of the few places you’ll get better numbers than these.

Consider: Brady has four straight 300-yard passing games – something he didn’t do in the magical ’07 run – and is actually on pace to have a best-ever yardage total: 4,869. His completion percentage is 66.2, and at his current rate, he’ll throw 34 touchdowns against 11 interceptions, with a quarterback rating over 100.

Ask any Browns fan: they’d be beyond ecstatic to get numbers like that from their quarterback. Assuming Eric Mangini knows who his quarterback is.

Ever since he returned to the field for the most highly-anticipated spring passing camp practice in the history of spring NFL practices (seriously, there were 96 reporter/photographer types there, or more folks than there were in attendance for the Lions’ last home game), Brady has said that he’s working to put the injury behind him mentally.

That wasn’t possible, of course, once he got on the field in full pads with large players trying to get him down.

Yet it is that mental strength, which allowed him to go from unheralded sixth-round draft pick to one of the greatest of his generation, that got Brady past any issues he did have when he returned to game play.

He has found a new love and appreciation for his sport, and he has stepped to the forefront this year as a vocal leader as so many of the men he played with in his career – Mike Vrabel, Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison, Richard Seymour – and set the tone for New England in the locker room and in the press have moved on.

This Sunday will be a chance for Brady to show just how far he has come; against the Jets in Week 2, he completed less than 50 percent of his passes for 216 yards, and it was the only time this season that he hasn’t thrown a touchdown.

That his performance was so uneven in that game was not entirely Brady’s fault. Lest we forget, Joey Galloway caught just five of the 14 passes thrown his way, and rookie Julian Edelman didn’t just play in his first NFL game, he was forced to start because Wes Welker wasn’t able to suit up.

Welker will be on the field this week, and Galloway will be watching from home.

And Brady & Co. will be looking to exact a little revenge after the sub-par performance on Sept. 20.

Over the past month, however, there has been nothing sub-par about Brady’s play. He is once again carving up defenses, and next on the list is the Jets.

smanza@projo.com