Football players get much bigger from high school to college to the professional level, typically through weightlifting programs and, for lineman, weight-gaining techniques. But not Daniel McCullers. The opposite applies for the Steelers' sixth-round pick.
The 6-foot-7-inch, 352-pound defensive tackle, the biggest player selected in the 2014 NFL draft, weighed an unhealthy 414 pounds during his senior year in high school.
MORE: Full draft recap | Steelers' picks
Daniel McCullers at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis (AP Photo)
“He is not a fat kid. He's just big,” former Southeast Raleigh High School football coach Daniel Finn told Mark Kaboly of Triblive.com. “He doesn't have a huge stomach or anything like that. He is just a big person, and always been.”
A mammoth of a human being, McCullers was cut from his middle school football team likely because he was in "terrible shape," he claims. Despite routine workouts and running drills in high school, the nose tackle just kept getting bigger.
McCullers probably would never have received a shot at the NFL had he not attended Georgia Military College — officers put the 400 pounder through vigorous training and dropped his weight by about 40 pounds — before playing at Tennessee.
McCullers displayed freakish athleticism for a player his size at Tennessee's Pro Day, running the 40 in 5.32 seconds and measuring a 20 percent body-fat ratio. His full story is remarkable and worth a read.
McCullers, who Pittsburgh selected with the 215th overall pick in the draft, is expected to compete for a roster spot behind veterans Steve McLendon and Cam Thomas.