Von Miller, then and now: How recruits grow (and grow some more) into draft picks, by the numbers

Jon Lee, editor of Texas A&M's official athletics site, dipped into the archives earlier this week to compare Von Miller, the 210-pound freshman who showed up in College Station in 2007, to Von Miller, the 240-pound All-American who was taken with the second overall pick in last week's NFL draft. The difference … well, you can see the difference. Note that Miller's weight-training program as a senior consisted of hauling around his little black book of coed phone numbers, little being the operative word.

By Division I standards, however, the transformation is fairly typical for the 99 percent of players who don't arrive on campus looking like a pro from Day 1. Including Miller, more than half of this year's first-round picks gained at least 25 pounds between signing day and draft day, and a handful of the linemen put on twice that. Two of the more unheralded prospects who turned themselves into first-day studs, Wisconsin defensive end J.J. Watt (a former walk-on who originally signed with Central Michigan; pictured bottom right) and Colorado offensive tackle Nate Solder (a converted tight end), added some 65 pounds apiece from the beginning of their careers to the end.

The full accounting of modern strength and conditioning programs is below the jump, with one very clear, very important lesson: Whatever you do in life, never, ever get between Nick Fairley and a buffet. Or between Nick Fairley and anything, really.

All recruiting weights by Rivals; click on the highlighted numbers for each player's original recruiting profile.

Pick	Player	Recruiting Weight	Draft Weight	Change	�	Pick	Player	Recruiting Weight	Draft Weight	Change
1	Cam Newton	232	247	+15	�	17	Nate Solder	240	305	+65
2	Von Miller	210	240	+30	�	18	Corey Liuget	260	300	+40
3	Marcell Dareus	277	306	+29	�	19	Prince Amukamara	180	200	+20
4	A.J. Green	184	207	+23	�	20	Adrian Clayborn	247	285	+38
5	Patrick Peterson	193	211	+18	�	21	Phil Taylor	346	355	+9
6	Julio Jones	215	211	?4	�	22	Anthony Castonzo	260	295	+35
7	Aldon Smith	235	255	+20	�	23	Danny Watkins	290	310	+20
8	Jake Locker	210	226	+16	�	24	Cameron Jordan	250	282	+32
9	Tyron Smith	260	285	+25	�	25	James Carpenter	305	300	?5
10	Blaine Gabbert	226	240	+14	�	26	Jonathan Baldwin	233	225	?8
11	J.J. Watt	220	285	+65	�	27	Jimmy Smith	175	210	+35
12	Christian Ponder	202	227	+25	�	28	Mark Ingram	195	215	+20
13	Nick Fairley	257	314	+57	�	29	Gabe Carimi	268	315	+47
14	Robert Quinn	245	270	+25	�	30	Muhammad Wilkerson	255	300	+45
15	Mike Pouncey	280	310	+30	�	31	Cameron Heyward	264	288	+24
16	Ryan Kerrigan	233	263	+30	�	32	Derek Sherrod	298	305	+7

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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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