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:
* 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.