FOXBORO — On Thursday morning, the locker that had belonged to Randy Moss for the last three-plus seasons was cleaned out. New practice squad quarterback Brett Ratliff was the one now occupying the space between Tom Brady and Zoltan Mesko. Moss’ belongings, his nameplate and equipment were gone for Minnesota.

Such is the transitory nature of life in the NFL. One guy leaves, another one enters, the whistle blows and the season rolls on. Patriots veterans saluted Moss and sounded sad that he was no longer going to be around. But mostly, it was matter-of-fact sentiment echoed throughout the New England locker room on Thursday.

It’s business. Now, it’s time to get back to work.

“I was very fortunate to play with a guy like Randy. I had a chance to know him as a person, not just as an athlete. He was a great person, he was a great athlete, probably one of the greatest guys you’ll ever meet,” said Vince Wilfork after the Patriots’ first practice in three-plus years without Moss.

“It’s business,” he said. “It happens all the time. But we’re going to keep rolling. I’m pretty sure Randy’s going to keep doing what he has to do in Minnesota.”

Brady knows what it means to see a teammate and good friend walk out the door at Gillette Stadium. He’s gone through this on two separate occasions — first, with the release of close friend Lawyer Milloy in 2003, and second, with the trade of Deion Branch in 2006.

He echoed Wilfork’s point, saying he’ll miss Moss, but life goes on.

“Randy really knows how I feel about him,” Brady said in an interview with “Patriots All-Access” that will air on Friday. “I love him as a guy, as a person, as a player. He did a lot of great things for this team. At the same time, I think coach (Bill) Belichick feels that’s what he thinks he needs to do for the team. So we as players, we deal with it and we move on. I think I’ve been around long enough to realize that nothing really surprises me. The best thing for me to do is to be the best quarterback that I can be for the team.”

A report the wide receiver was a distraction in the locker room — raised by a former Moss teammate, Tedy Bruschi — was roundly dismissed by Wilfork.

“We’ve never had problems with Randy. Our locker room is our locker room. We’ve never had an issue. I can’t remember an issue that we had. I don’t know what Tedy’s bringing up,” Wilfork said of Bruschi.

“That’s not an issue in this locker room. That was business. It’s all business and it happens. You have to move forward from it. And that’s one thing we’ll do around here, especially for myself knowing him personally, I’ll move forward from it.”

“He was an excellent teammate. I’ve spent three years here with him — all the talk and all the hype, I never experienced it,” said defensive back and wide receiver Matt Slater. “I learned a lot from him. Like I said, it was like a childlike joy I had working with him because I looked up to him as a kid growing up.

“As far as me and my experience, I can only speak for myself, I really enjoyed playing with him. I’m thankful for the opportunity I had to play with him and watch him work, day-in, day-out, and learn things from him about the wide receiver position and being a professional in general.”

While it was almost all positive words about Moss, fellow receiver Wes Welker did say he found it “disappointing” that Moss was the one who requested the trade.

“I think that was kind of a difficult thing,” Welker said. “Just because he was the guy always giving pep talks before the game, halftime, after the game. Not knowing that he was wanting to get traded the whole time was a little bit disappointing.

“We have a sign that says, ‘If you don't want to be here, you don’t have to be here.’ And I guess, I'm not really sure the scenario or anything like that, but it's kind of the way things worked out.”

The prospect of life without Moss, which seemed unfathomable a week ago, is now reality for the Patriots. While New England had no problem filling the real estate in the locker room, it will be up to those who remain — particularly those on the offensive side of the ball — to up their games to replace the remarkable impact Moss had in his 56 games with the Patriots.

“I’ve been a part of a lot of different moves throughout the course of my career. You just have to show up to work and come in and be a professional and make sure guys like myself keeps the guys in the locker room together so we go out there and continue to play,” said veteran tight end Alge Crumpler. “That’s all we can do. We still have 12 games to play, and it’s important for us to go out there as a team and try and make things happen.

“Look — we all in this locker room love Randy. He’s a Hall of Fame player. I’ve probably only played with more than two or three Hall of Fame players in my career. I studied him. I watched him. I learned a lot from him. And like coach said, I wish him well. We all wish him well.

“Except for when they come in here.”