UPDATED: Rookie Free Agent List Grows

Over thirty rookie free agents and tryout players have been identified so far, thanks to the searching of Browns fans in the Watercooler, and reports from Scout experts. Here's who we know about so far...

UPDATE 4/30 11AM: Check out this thread in the Watercooler, where we've discovered even more tryout players coming in this weekend.

Not so long ago, the NFL draft was a non-event for most fans. It consisted mostly of dull-looking people sitting by phones. Now, of course, it's covered by two different networks, reported on in every newspaper, yammered about incessantly by sports radio types and bloggers, and is the subject of 4,391 web sites (at last count) manned by people with an intense interest in the draft and, generally, horrific taste in web design.

Just a couple of years ago, only a precious few hard-core fans paid attention to the signings of rookie free agents, and our reports on the OBR were often greeted in the forums by fans dismissing the listing of undrafted free agents (UDFAs), with phrases like "scrubs", "stiffs", "camp fodder", and "Someone needs to stop Barry from writing any more articles about Richard Alston."

Of course, all of that is changing fast. Now, the signing of undrafted free agents following the draft is quickly turning into a spectacle of bloggers pestering agents, fans slamming Google for updates, and rapid press releases by most teams.

Heaven help us if ESPN buys the broadcast rights.

There's good reason for this, of course. As fans, we want more and more NFL news all the time, and the seven-round NFL draft often leaves a lot of decent talent around after "Mr. Irrelevant" is picked. Browns fans are familiar with names like "Josh Cribbs" and "Leigh Bodden", both undrafted free agents who turned into important players and, in the case of Cribbs, a Pro Bowler.

 The quest for information on rookie free agents was more intense this year than ever before and, unfortunately, often less accurate. The use of poorly sourced, and often outright plagiarized, information on blogs and draft sites has hit epic proportions. So, fans need to be careful about what they believe or don't believe as names start getting thrown onto draft and fantasy football sites.

With that in mind, here is the rather lengthy list of rookie free agents and try-out players we've heard about here on the OBR. We'll do something shocking by actually providing easy access to the source article where we got the name, or giving you the name of the Scout reporter who found out about the signing. This is known as "hyperlinking", which is an alternative to the approach we see most often in the sports media these days, which is called "copying".

Here's the list, with there usual Shout-Out in Praise of Awesomeness Above and Beyond the Call of Duty to the OBR Watercooler:

DE	Xavier Mitchell	Tennessee	Chris Steuber (Scout.com)
QB	Craig Hormann	Columbia	ESPN and the Columbia Official Site
CB	Darnell Terrell	Missouri	Adam Caplan (Scout.com)
DE	Chase Ortiz	TCU	Adam Caplan (Scout.com)
RB	Tony Temple	Missouri	Kansas City Star
K	Jason Reda	Illinois	Chicago Tribune
LB	Nick Moore	Baylor	KWTX.com
WR	Lance Leggett	Miami (FL)	TheLedger.com
CB	Robbie Powell	Purdue	Journal and Chronicle Online
CB	Jonathan Zenon	LSU	LSU Reveille.com
RB	Travis Thomas	Notre Dame	Notre Dame Athletics
OL	James Lee	South Carolina St	thetandd.com
OT	Brian Stamper	Vanderbilt	Nashville City Paper
LB	Jermain Dias	Virginia	Herald-Dispatch.com
TE	Kolo Kapanui	West Texas A&M	Star Bulletin
OL	Eric Young	Tennessee	Goupstate.com
WR	Brandon Copeland	Bridgewater	Bridgewater Football
DT	Brian Shaeferling	Lindenwood	St. Louis Post-Dispatch
WR	James Banks	Carson-Newman	Go Vols Extra
TE	Ben Barkema	Iowa State	Quad Cities Times
CB	Jerrid Gaines	Miami (OH)	Dayton Daily News
S	Justin Harrison	Illinois	Pantagraph.com
DT	Steven Friend	CMU	Morning Sun
P	Ben Woods	Buffalo	Sharon Herald
QB	Kevin Hoyng *	Dayton	Dayton Daily News
WR/CB	Andrew Hawkins *	Toledo	Ed Thompson (Scout.com)
RB	Austin Scott *	Penn State	MCall.com
CB	Gerard Lawson	Oregon State	Oregon Live
WR	Matt Champa	Dayton	Dayton Daily News
DT	Kyle Lockett	Urbana	Press of Atlantic City
WR	Chris Schubert *	Oberlin	Elyria Chronicle-Telegram
RB	DeShawn Baker	South Carolina St	Times and Democrat
RB	Hugh Charles*	Colorado	Colorado Daily
S	Todd Koenig	Ohio	The Post (Ohio U)
DE	Jeff Van Osrow*	Oregon State	The Oregonian
LB	Lenny Trusnik *	Ohio Northern	ONUSports.com

* Believed to be tryout contract only

We've also heard repeatedly that S Greg Hay will be getting an invite to mini-camp, but haven't seen this in a reliable source as of yet. Same with Eddie Pinigis of Liberty.