The Patriots’ skill players keep getting hurt. What’s that mean for Tom Brady?

Bill Belichick worked hard to surround Tom Brady with talent. The injury gods had different plans.

Bill Belichick made sure Tom Brady was surrounded by running and receiving talent in his age-40 season. The surefire Hall of Famer was gifted the deepest offense in New England Patriot history after a busy offseason brought players like Brandin Cooks, Mike Gillislee, Rex Burkhead, Dwayne Allen, and Phillip Dorsett into the fold.

Instead, injuries have decimated one of the league’s top offenses, and Brady will have to find a way to do what he’s done for several years — make do with less and spin chicken turds into chicken salad.

For reference, here’s what Brady was working with as the 2017 preseason began — a loaded lineup of versatile playmakers who helped make New England the favorite to win Super Bowl 52.

The bad news began in the preseason. Julian Edelman’s torn ACL robbed Brady of his longest-tenured wide receiver. Edelman, coming off a career-high 1,106 yards in 2016, was lost for the season before ever playing a meaningful game. He was joined on injured reserve by second-year wideout Malcolm Mitchell, a versatile pass catcher who could work inside and out and had six catches for 70 yards in Super Bowl 51. Mitchell’s undisclosed knee injury will keep him out until at least Week 10.

Belichick and his brain trust made a move late in the preseason to bring in Dorsett from the Indianapolis Colts, shipping back third-string passer Jacoby Brissett in return. Here’s how that depth chart had devolved once the team’s final preseason cuts had been made and an opening night showdown with the Chiefs loomed.

The Patriots lost that game and Danny Amendola in the process. The veteran wideout had a 100-yard performance before suffering a concussion that kept him out of Sunday’s matchup with the Saints and possibly beyond.

The rest of the team remained relatively healthy ... until Week 2. New England’s sideline injury tent saw more visitors than a Provo bar when Wisconsin plays at BYU as receivers, tailbacks, and tight ends all limped off the field. All three players who caught touchdown passes met with trainers at some point. Rex Burkhead’s rib injury kept him out of the second half. Rob Gronkowski’s groin injury isn’t expected to be serious, but it still cut a six-reception, 116-yard day short after three quarters.

Only Chris Hogan would return to the field. His presence was vital, as Dorsett would lope to the injury tent in the fourth quarter to end the second-most productive day of his NFL career. After two games, here’s what New England’s skill player depth chart looks like.

That leaves the team with one wide receiver who didn’t pull up lame in Week 2, zero healthy tight ends who played for the team in 2016, and a running backs platoon just waiting for Dion Lewis’ annual serious injury.

What’s worse is the timing of these injuries. New England carried a cache of young wideouts on the fringe of making an NFL roster throughout the preseason, only to release them on Sept. 2, the league’s cutdown day. Players like Austin Carr and Devin Lucien knew the Patriot playbook after spending the offseason with the team, but now play for the Saints and Colts, respectively (Lucien is, belying his Patriot background, also injured).

The rest of the available receiver market is grim. Victor Cruz’s career may be over after being released by the wideout-needy Bears this preseason. Anquan Boldin announced his retirement, despite reports linking him to the Pats. Vincent Jackson is 34 and miles from his peak. Dorial Green-Beckham is a beautiful jigsaw puzzle no one can seem to fit together.

How will the Patriots adapt and survive?

Bill Belichick’s receiving corps may have thinned out, but the Patriots can still thrive even if they only have three healthy wideouts. New England has a trio of running backs who can be receiving weapons out of the backfield between Super Bowl record holder James White, the banged-up Burkhead, and Lewis. On Sunday, White led the team with eight receptions. Burkhead had three, including a gorgeous 19-yard touchdown catch.

Playing with Brady also has elevated Dorsett, who looked like the big-play threat he was advertised to be after making two catches of 23 yards or more. He’s a bit redundant in the team’s lineup of deep threats — Cooks and Hogan can each roast defenders downfield -- but expect his route wheel to get more diverse the longer he stays with the team.

The biggest issue now is who Brady can target inside the hashmarks, as his top over-the-middle targets are all injured. Getting Gronkowski and Amendola back for Week 3 would be a major win in that department. So too would be getting any kind of production from Allen, the tight end who has yet to make a catch since being traded to New England back in April.

Fortunately, the Patriots have a couple weeks before their schedule amps up the difficulty. They’ll face the Texans and Panthers in Weeks 3 and 4, two dangerous but flawed teams against whom they can rely on a limited playmaking corps. After that, games against the Buccaneers and Falcons loom before the bye week allows some time to regroup.

Belichick’s Patriots have survived and thrived through worse injuries, and Brady’s 447-yard performance was enough to assuage any concerns about the team’s offense. However, they’ll need to hope injuries to players like Gronkowski and Amendola aren’t the kind that plague them all season. Tom Brady can spin straw into gold, but he’ll need all the help he can get thanks to a brutal schedule and a rising tide of tough AFC opponents.