Louisville receiver DeVante Parker missed seven games with a foot injury, but leaving him off the ESPN.com All-ACC team would have meant ignoring one of the top five players in the league this season.

There. I said it. In only five games, Parker showed why he will be a first-round pick in the NFL draft, perhaps even in the top 10. In a word, he was unstoppable, with 35 receptions for 735 yards and five touchdowns.

Because he did not play in enough games, he does not qualify to be listed among the ACC stat leaders. But it is not easy to do some simple calculations to figure out how dominant he was in 2014. Parker led his own team in receptions and receiving yards, opening up the offense in a way that made the Cardinals much more dynamic.

Florida State defenders can tell anybody that first-hand after he torched them for a season-high 214 yards.

Parker gained more than 100 yards receiving in four of five games, averaging 147 yards per game. That would rank him No. 1 in the league and No. 2 in the nation, ahead of Heisman finalist Amari Cooper (127.4 yards per game).

He averaged seven receptions per game. That would rank him No. 2 in the league and among the top 15 in the nation.

He averaged 21 yards per catch, second behind Miami's Phillip Dorsett.

Not only does Parker lead his own team in receiving yards, he would lead eight other ACC teams in receiving yards, too: Boston College, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, NC State, Syracuse Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.

Quite impressive.

In the end, it does not seem fair to penalize Parker for breaking his foot in August. Not only did it cost him most of his senior season, it cost us the chance to watch such a dynamic playmaker every single week. There are so many what-if scenarios with a healthy Parker that we can only guess about what he, and Louisville, could have done.

But it is worth rewarding Parker for what we saw over a short period of time. He did not need 12 games to convince anybody he is one of the best receivers not just in the ACC, but in the entire country. Really, he only needed one.