FOXBORO — The Randy Moss story has legs once again.

During the season last year, one of the hot stories was New England possibly swinging a deal with Oakland that would bring Moss to Foxboro. The debates began immediately over whether Moss — who has admitted to taking plays off and infamously mooned the Green Bay crowd during the 2005 playoffs, among other things — would be a good fit with the Patriots.

Before the draft began yesterday, NFL Network’s Adam Schefter reported that the Raiders were in talks with New England about acquiring Moss.

Schefter wrote that vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli and coach Bill Belichick had offered a second-day pick in return for the mercurial wideout, but Raiders owner/general manager Al Davis wanted more. Moss has not hidden his unhappiness since being traded to Oakland before the 2005 season.

Moss, who turned 30 in February, is due to make $9.75 million this season. Oakland has asked him to restructure his contract, but Moss has refused. However, it is believed that he would rework his deal to move to New England, where he has a chance to go to his first Super Bowl, or Green Bay; rumors of a Moss-to-the-Packers deal have been swirling for weeks.

Belichick was asked to confirm Schefter’s report yesterday evening, but wouldn’t say much.

“First of all, I think there are a lot of things that get talked about at this time of year; a lot of things get thrown around,” he said. “I really don’t have any comment on it and I certainly wouldn’t comment on a player on another team in this league [for fear of tampering charges]. That I definitely wouldn’t do.”

Moss had a rookie-record 17 touchdowns in 1998, and went to the Pro Bowl five times as a member of the Vikings. He did have 1,005 yards receiving in his first season in Oakland, but was limited to 13 games because of injury last year, when he had 42 catches for a career-low 553 yards. His three touchdowns were also the fewest of his career.

Jets know well how to deal

The powers that be with the New York Jets — general manager Mike Tannenbaum and head coach Eric Mangini — are both branches on the ever-growing Belichick coaching tree, and yesterday was another example that they learned well from Belichick and Pioli, who have made draft-weekend trades into an art form.

With defensive lineman Alan Branch and the top two corners in the draft, Pittsburgh’s Darrelle Revis and Michigan’s Leon Hall, all on the board after 13 picks, the Jets traded with Carolina to obtain the Panthers’ number 14 pick, as well as its sixth-round choice at 191.

New York used the pick on Revis, a 6-foot, 191 pound Pennsylvania native who could become an NFL safety because of his range.

Squib kicks

New England’s trade with the 49ers was the 19th draft-weekend trade that Belichick and Pioli have made since their first draft with the Patriots, in 2001. It was the fourth time a trade has involved a first-round pick. ... When asked if he felt there were any surprises between picks 10 and 23 yesterday, Belichick said, “No, I wouldn’t have predicted [Notre Dame’s] Brady Quinn would have slid as far as he did. There was a big run of defensive players through the teens and that’s what I expected; that’s what most people expected.” ... The first round yesterday was the longest in the 40-year history of the draft. The first two rounds took nine hours and 20 minutes to complete. ... New England owner Robert Kraft tipped off fans at the team’s draft party at Gillette before the Pats’ pick yesterday, saying that if he was a betting man, he’d put his money on the Patriots taking a defensive player.

smanza@projo.com