Get well soon, Donald Driver (please)

By Os Davis | Wednesday, September 05, 2007 | ( 2 )

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An open letter to Donald Driver:

Dear Mr. Driver,

On behalf of all who own you in fantasy football, get well soon.

That's not a wish, by the way, it's a command. OK, a plea. OK, a panicked plea.

I see where you're still listed as questionable for the Green Bay Packers opener against the Philadelphia Eagles. I promise I'm not weird, I'm not a stalker, but I'm checking your player profile on every NFL-related Web site I can think of hourly just to find one where that cruel red 12-letter judgment on your physical status is erased.

Right now, I'm hoping Connor Byrne's assessment - the one that reassures me that ultimately (which, in this case, means Sunday) everything will be just fine - holds true.

Look, I'm not asking for much here. I know I'll never be a championship-level fantasy coach; the ratio of heart-to-head in my drafting, trading and playing is way too high, and I'm too sentimental (read: old) to change the way I play. I don't mind finishing low in the standings; I just want to make a respectable showing. You know, like not embarrass myself.

And you're a big part of that plan, Mr. Driver.

May I compliment you on your stats the last three seasons, sir, in you incipient and surely speedy recovery? While playing every single game, you racked up an average of seven TDs, 87 catches and 1,241 yards. Best of all, that yardage stat was nice and consistent, representing three 1,200-plus seasons. It's unbelievable to think you didn't get Pro Bowl bids in either 2004 or '05, when your stats and play were a razor's breadth worse than in '06.

I don't know if you're a stat guy, Mr. Driver, but in your '04 season was less than .16 points per week worse than your Pro Bowl year of '06. You were a great find that season, let me tell ya.

Heck, less abstractly, who knew that you were fifth in receiving yards last year?

Few noticed, but I did.

But over the past three seasons, Favre and Driver have combined for 257 receptions, tying the Colts' Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison as the second-most productive twosome in the league. The Bengals' Carson Palmer and Chad Johnson are first, having collaborated 262 times.

I've had you on my teams three of the last four years now and, while you haven't exactly saved my bacon per se, I can sleep easily Saturday nights knowing that "No. 1 WR" slot has your name filling it.

That's where you need to be, Mr. Driver, in the No. 1 slot, not on the sideline. Get better soon, because I may need the points. And I think I'm not alone in this.

Yes, I know, even in the RealFootball365 staff league where receiving yards are rewarded as generously as running yards, that the wide receiver position generates a low fraction of the total points throughout the year, but that's really the point in drafting a Donald Driver, isn't it? I shouldn't have to sweat the performance of an on-again, off-again like Darrell Jackson because I can't count on the position to score 10 fantasy points.

Week in and week out, you're an easy 9-10 - and I mean that in the best possible way.

As an individual player, you are criminally underrated.

Mr. Driver, from the bottom of my heart, you are the Showtime Rotisserie of fantasy ball: "Set it and forget it!"

I don't know how your Packers will fare this year, and quite frankly your heroics, even should you break the 1,300-yard barrier, might not be enough this year for the team to sneak into the playoffs. It may be a bit forbidding to realize that, though you're filling the highlight DVD for the 2007 Packers, your abilities are all going toward another 8-8 result.

You may not even want to get out of bed some mornings. Or be tempted to over-nurse an injury.

But remember, Mr. Driver, thousands of us are counting on you.

We need those points.

I need those points.

Get better soon. Please.

RealFootball365.com: Wishing speedy recovery to all those doubtful, questionable, and straight-up injured all year-round.

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	About Os Davis Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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