A year to revere

The six teams chewed up by New England this season know the real reason the Patriots are already overwhelming favorites to win the Super Bowl:

Tom Brady fed the hands that bit them.

Those hands -- belonging to first-year Patriots Randy Moss, Donte Stallworth and Wes Welker -- have gotten a lot of the credit for New England’s 6-0 start.

But it’s Brady who makes the Patriots go, and he is on pace to break some NFL single-season records -- among them Peyton Manning’s thought-to-be-untouchable mark of 49 touchdown passes.

“Tom is playing as well as anyone we’ve ever seen at this point in time over a six-game span,” said Miami Coach Cam Cameron, whose winless Dolphins play host to New England on Sunday.

Long before this season, Brady established Hall of Fame credentials. He joins Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana and Troy Aikman as the only quarterbacks to lead their teams to at least three Super Bowl victories -- and Brady got his three rings before age 28.

Brady’s 88-26 record as a starter is by far the best of any quarterback with at least 40 starts in the modern era. He nearly directed the Patriots to another Super Bowl last season, before the Indianapolis Colts mounted a mind-blowing comeback in the AFC championship game.

So it’s not as if Brady was coming off a shabby season.

Yet consider this: He has 21 touchdown passes this season compared to 24 all of last season, and his current passer rating is 128.7 -- a jump of 41.0 points over last season that would be the biggest single-season improvement in league history, according to STATS LLC. Manning’s 121.1 rating in 2004 is the record.

“You look at what he’s being doing in terms of his history,” teammate Junior Seau said. “It’s amazing that a guy as young as he is has the poise that he does and the resume that he has.”

By way of comparison, Moss played in Minnesota with Daunte Culpepper in 2004, when the Vikings quarterback had a season for the ages, throwing a team-record 39 touchdowns and breaking Dan Marino’s season league mark with a combined 5,123 yards passing and rushing.

After Brady threw five touchdown passes in a 48-27 victory at Dallas last Sunday, Moss was asked how Brady’s season so far compares to Culpepper’s fabulous year.

“Tom Brady hands down, man,” he said. “I don’t say that because I’m here with Tom. I’ve always been a big fan of Tom Brady’s, and I’ve always had a saying: Peyton Manning has his wide receivers, why can’t Tom Brady have his? Now that Tom has his, we’ll see.”

It’s not as if Brady, who has thrown only two interceptions this season, limped along with poor receivers in the past. Deion Branch was outstanding, David Givens and Troy Brown were very good, and tight ends Daniel Graham and Christian Fauria were both sure-handed targets.

And Moss, despite five Pro Bowl appearances from 1998 through 2003, was essentially cast aside by Oakland, who traded him on draft weekend for a fourth-round selection.

He caught 42 passes for 553 yards with three touchdowns last season. Through six games this season, he has eclipsed nearly all of those numbers with 40 catches for league highs of 610 yards and eight touchdowns. (Plaxico Burress of the New York Giants has also caught eight scoring passes.)

If Brady has made Moss better -- and vice versa -- the same is true of the quarterback and his other receivers. Tight end Benjamin Watson, who is second on the team with five touchdown catches, also fits in that category.

Welker, a fourth-year player who was cut by San Diego after his rookie season, was an up-and-comer on a bad Miami team last season. He led the Dolphins with 67 receptions despite starting just two games, and also made his mark returning kickoffs and punts. The Patriots got him for a second-round pick.

Days after trading for Welker, the Patriots signed Stallworth, an unrestricted free agent who caught 38 passes for 725 yards and five touchdowns for Philadelphia last season.

Slowed by a knee injury early this season, Stallworth, who is among the NFL’s fastest receivers, caught touchdown passes of 34 and 69 yards the past two weeks.

All those options, plus an unusually fast tight end in Watson, allow the Patriots to stretch defenses and create matchup problems.

Brady and Manning are the league’s two best quarterbacks when it comes to identifying soft spots in a defense. For instance, Brady can exploit a scheme trying to cover 6-foot-4 Moss with one defender, or pick apart a linebacker trying to keep pace with Welker in the slot.

“I’ve never played with anyone that accurate,” Welker said of Brady. “I’ve never seen anyone that accurate. It’s not just that he gets you the ball. It’s that he gets you the ball where you can do something with it. Even in the NFL that’s rare.”

New England’s running game is an important component too -- the Patriots have thrown on 204 plays and run on 202 -- as is the protection offered by an offensive line that has given up only three sacks.

If that weren’t enough, the Patriots’ defense is second only to Pittsburgh in yards allowed, frequently putting the offense in good position to score.

And the Patriots certainly know how to score. They’re averaging a league-high 38.3 points a game. The Cowboys, at 33.8, are the NFL’s only other team in the 30s.

“When you have guys with the kind of skill that the Patriots do, and multiple players, it’s pretty hard to go cover them all,” said former Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer, whose team lost a divisional playoff game to New England last January.

In New England’s locker room, the appreciation for Brady runs through every position group on both sides of the ball.

Brady’s dedication to honing his craft stands out even in a league in which players spend dozens of hours each week working out, studying plays and breaking down videotape.

He has a special parking spot at team headquarters that he first earned for his above-and-beyond work in the weight room. And, in addition to all his position meetings, he conducts a special one with his receivers the night before a game -- something not all quarterbacks do.

Even on the team plane he invariably can be found in the back with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, poring over the defensive looks and schemes he might encounter during the next game.

“Those guys spend so much time talking about the strengths and weaknesses of each defense, where the opportunities may be down field and in all phases of the passing game,” said tight end Kyle Brady, who’s not related to the quarterback. “It’s not as easy as Tom goes out and makes it look.

“His motion is so smooth, his delivery and mechanics make it look easy. But what it takes to get to that point mentally, and making those reads, just doesn’t happen other places.”

Safety Rodney Harrison called the quarterback’s feats “truly amazing,” and said he has a special appreciation for Brady, having played with someone at the opposite end of the skill and work-ethic spectrum: former Chargers bust Ryan Leaf.

“So let me tell you something,” Harrison said. “Every time I see [Brady], I want to give him a hug.”

sam.farmer@latimes.com

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Going-up Brady

At his current pace, New England quarterback Tom Brady would establish an NFL record for most improved passer rating in a single season. And with his record-setting pace of touchdown passes this season, Brady is moving up yet another league career list:

Top passer rating increases from one year to the next (minimum 150 attempts each season):

*--* QB, Team Yr/Nxt yr Ratings -- Up Tom Brady, NE ‘06/’07 87.9 128.9 41.0 Bart Starr, GB ‘67/’68 64.4 104.3 39.9 M. Taliaferro, NE ‘68/’69 26.9 66.0 39.1 *--*

Most touchdown passes per game, career (minimum 100 games):

*--* Quarterback TDG Peyton Manning 1.91 Dan Marino 1.74 Brett Favre 1.72 Tom Brady 1.63 Jim Kelly 1.48 *--*

Source of charts: STATS LLC.