Day two of the NFL Draft is the day when teams find the hidden gems.

Players like the New England Patriots’ quarterback and two-time super bowl MVP Tom Brady and Miami Dolphins’ Pro Bowl linebacker Zach Thomas have been scooped up in the sixth round.

NIU kicker Steve Azar, the MAC’s all-time kick-scoring leader, was rated as high as third by Yahoo! at his position on pre-draft boards. However, the NFL scouts must have missed something when it came to breaking down tape on Azar, who wasn’t selected in this year’s draft.

Iowa kicker Nate Kaeding was selected in the third round and will follow NIU’s Michael Turner to the San Diego Chargers, and Louisiana Tech’s Josh Scobee went in the fifth to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Kickers rarely are taken on the first day of the draft, the exception being Oakland’s police blotter poster boy Sebastian Janikowski, who was taken in the first round in 2000.

Scobee, rated as low as sixth out of the eight kickers, wasn’t even rated higher than Azar on most pre-draft boards. It seemed to be a sure thing that Azar would be picked in the final two rounds.

Penn State’s David Kimball, who will be a kickoff specialist for the Indianapolis Colts, was the last kicker selected.

Apparently Azar’s 372 career kick-scoring points and 73 field goals that rank No. 1 in the MAC and NIU history weren’t good enough.

Even former Toledo kicker Todd France, who was a senior when he finished second in the MAC in kick-scoring to a sophomore named Steve Azar, currently resides with the New York Giants. This proves that drafting a kicker has nothing to do with whether he’s from a mid-major.

Kaeding deserved to go early because he only missed one extra-point in 146 attempts and seven field goals in 56 attempts over three years.

On the other hand, Scobee made 21 field goals this past season, as many as Azar, but needed five more attempts to do it. Azar’s longest made field goal was 52-yards, 1 yard shorter than Scobee.

Azar also has more experience than Scobee, having kicked for NIU in all but two games over the past four years. Basically, Azar kicked more field goals than Scobee but made 79 percent compared to Scobee’s 74 percent in three years.

Don’t forget that Azar is kicking in the swirling winds of the windy village known as DeKalb for half the season, while Scobee is basking in the beautiful southern weather during the winter months.

The main knock on Azar is that his kickoffs aren’t deep enough. Big deal. His longest field goal is 1 yard shorter than Scobee’s, and teams would have until the fall to help Azar work on his kickoff mechanics if they pick him up now.

The Colorado Springs native was the next NIU athlete expected to be taken in the draft after Turner.

Azar still has a chance to be picked up like many of NIU’s other seniors who are expected to sign as free agents, but the days continue to pass without a phone call.

If the NFL only knew the player it is missing out on – not just an accurate kicker, but the best in MAC history.