Jon Merckle
Senior blogger at The Viking Age
Twitter: @TheVikingPig/@The Viking Age

His team picked first:

RB Adrian Peterson
WR Julio Jones
QB Cam Newton
TE Jason Witten
RB Giovani Bernard
WR Cecil Shorts
WR Greg Jennings
WR Michael Floyd
RB Bernard Pierce
TE Owen Daniels
K Blair Walsh
Steelers Defense

His thoughts:

While I play in several fantasy football leagues, it was a blast participating in ZoneBlitz Fantasy Mock Draft with a panel of other football bloggers who know a thing or two about the game. Picking first proved to have its advantages and disadvantages. To begin the draft I made the easy selection of taking Adrian Peterson number one overall. Not much needs to be said other than he’s maybe the surest number one overall pick in fantasy since Emmitt Smith in his heyday.

The disadvantage however played out when I had to wait another 23 picks to select again in the snake style draft. The consensus this year is fantasy managers should go RB-RB with it being a deeper year for QBs and WRs. However by the time I was on the clock again 15 running backs had flown off the board, so I doubled down with the duo of Cam Newton and Julio Jones. Cam is debatably the best dual-threat QB. He is only 24 years old and he came on especially strong toward the end of last season.

Julio Jones also remains in the mix for the being the second best NFL wide receiver behind Calvin Johnson and he plays in a high-octane offense. Then again came the pains of waiting. In rounds four and five it became clear that I had to secure a TE and patch up the second RB slot. With Graham and Gronk already off the board I made the decision to go with Witten. While he is on the wrong side of 30, Witten was the most targeted TE in the league last year and supposedly has excelled in the red zone this offseason. Yes, those are cherry picked stats, but it’s really a thin year for TEs.

On Bernard it’s only a matter of time before he becomes the man in Cincy. Rounding out the rest of my draft the goal was to build a decent WR corps, so I went with Cecil Shorts and Greg Jennings, both of whom should lead their teams in targets, and the ascending Michael Floyd who will benefit having a competent quarterback in Carson Palmer.

I also took the premier handcuff in fantasy football in Bernard Pierce. To me Pierce becomes a top 10 back immediately if something happens to Ray Rice and, even if Rice stays healthy, Pierce could flirt with double-digit touches a game this year. Also, I was fortunate to finish off nabbing the best kicker in the game in Blair Walsh and a consistently solid defense in Pittsburgh. This team sure looks like a contender to me.