The Patriots haven’t even trimmed their roster down to 53-man regular-season regulation form and they’ve already suffered one of their biggest losses this season — losing clutch wide receiver and Tom Brady Circle of Trust platinum member Julian Edelman to a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

Edelman’s loss for the season in a meaningless preseason game against the Detroit Lions last Friday is the first dent in the 2017 Patriots’ armor of invincibility and Super Bowl LII inevitability. No. 1 wide receivers with clutch résumés and symbiotic relationships with Brady can’t just be picked up on Amazon.com.

Edelman has turned himself into an admirable avatar of the Patriot Way and an indispensable receiver at the epicenter of the offense. His success reinforces the franchise’s ethos and strokes its ego. But the Patriots dynasty is built on the idea that all players are replaceable. The Patriots will find a way to compensate for Edelman’s production. That’s what they do. That’s who they are. The Patriots are the kings of improvisation and modification.

We’ve seen it before when players such as Ty Law, Kevin Faulk, Dan Koppen, Vince Wilfork, and Jerod Mayo went down with season-ending injuries or when the Patriots kissed off Wes Welker and Logan Mankins. They won the Super Bowl last year with their pass-catching pièce de résistance, Rob Gronkowski, playing half the regular season and not at all in the playoffs.

The Patriots always adapt to thrive. It’s what they’ve done since 2001. It’s what they did when down, 28-3, in Super Bowl LI. Their run-based game plan featuring LeGarrette Blount failed, so they turned to James White. Without Gronk to worry about, the Falcons bracketed Edelman and dared Danny Amendola and Chris Hogan to beat man coverage consistently. The Patriots countered in the second half by unleashing Malcolm Mitchell, who kept winning on the outside.

Football is an evolving equation with shifting variables to solve for, and Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels usually figure out the right answer. The Patriots offense is designed to be protean, based on available personnel and opponent, for this reason. It was that way with Edelman. It will be sans him.

“Josh and I talk all the time, every day, about our offensive system and kind of what we’re installing, where we’re going, certainly from week to week, depending on the team that we’re playing, what we’re going to do,’’ said Belichick. “So we don’t really have plays that go to one guy.

“I don’t think you can throw the ball like that — just drop back and throw it to one guy. You run a pass pattern, and depending on what the coverage is and what the defense does, then hopefully the ball goes to the right player.

“Now, all players have different skill sets, so what one player does well and what another player does well aren’t always the same thing. Each player is unique, each player has his own set of skills, so depending on who the players are in there, that affects sometimes what we do with them.’’

Replacing Edelman isn’t the toughest task that McDaniels has faced. In 2008, during his first stint as Patriots offensive coordinator, McDaniels had to devise an offense without Brady after the quarterback tore an ACL in the opener. McDaniels had to replace the one irreplaceable part.

He nurtured and developed Matt Cassel, who hadn’t started a meaningful game since high school, into a quarterback who steered the Patriots to fifth in the league in total offense, eighth in points per game, and an 11-5 record.

I think he’ll be able to devise a plan to utilize Brandin Cooks, who is coming off back-to-back 1,100-yard receiving seasons with the New Orleans Saints; Hogan, who in his first season in New England ranked second in the NFL in yards per reception (17.9); and Amendola and Mitchell to help compensate for Edelman’s absence. He’ll also be able to draw on his all-world tight end and a trio of pass-catching running backs — White, Dion Lewis, and newbie Rex Burkhead — to move the chains.

This isn’t to minimize Edelman’s loss. He has put up big numbers when healthy since inheriting the slot receiver mantle from Welker in 2013. He is crucial to the Patriots’ death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts offense, as last season he had the second-most third-down receptions (28) and most third-down receiving yards in the league (431).

Edelman has the most postseason receptions (89) and receiving yards (1,024) in Patriots history and ranks third all time in NFL playoff receptions behind Jerry Rice (151) and Reggie Wayne (93). His energy, effort, and competitiveness are contagious.

But the only guy who is irreplaceable is Brady, and Belichick seems to be willing to test that theory with Jimmy Garoppolo still lingering in Foxborough.

There have been dire warnings about how Brady functions without Edelman, based on the 2015 season, when Edelman broke his foot and missed the final seven games of the regular season. The offense sputtered. However, there were some extenuating circumstances involved that make that situation different from this one.

Amendola, the most Edelman-like receiver, sprained his knee against Buffalo the week after Edelman got hurt. It was an injury that had to be managed the rest of the way and forced him to sit out games against Denver and the New York Jets. Aaron Dobson, another in a long line of wideout draft busts for Belichick, hurt his ankle in the Buffalo game and landed on injured reserve. That forced Brady to rely on Keshawn Martin and Chris Harper. Oh, and Gronk hurt his knee against Denver and missed a game.

The Patriots are much better equipped to deal with Edelman’s loss this time around. The biggest beneficiary of Edelman’s unfortunate injury could be Cooks. Brady likes him and thinks he is diligent and Randy Moss-like intelligent when it comes to picking up the offense. Edelman’s injury could force Brady to rapidly develop a rapport with Cooks.

Replacing Edelman won’t be easy for the Patriots — hopefully, it’s nothing like replacing Mankins was the first quarter of the 2014 season — but they’ll find a way. That’s part of the Patriot Way.

The Patriots will have to adjust their offense without Edelman, but there is no reason to adjust expectations.

Christopher L. Gasper can be reached at cgasper@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @cgasper.