Fantasy football advice: Start the Buccaneers defense

Editor's Note: SB Nation's partner FanDuel is running a $1.25M fantasy football league on Sunday. First place wins $100,000. Join now!

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers play the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, and we have some weekly Bucs-related fantasy advice for you.

Jameis Winston

Jameis Winston had a ridiculous day against the Philadelphia Eagles last Sunday, but he's not going to repeat that every week. No quarterback has games like that every day, and Winston's production has been pretty inconsistent (if very promising), so don't expect to see that offensive explosion every week.

That said, this might still be a good week to start him. The Colts are dealing with several injuries on defense, most notably to Vontae Davis, and have given up oodles of yards and touchdowns on defense, ranking 29th and 23rd in the NFL respectively. They are good at taking the ball away (fifth in interceptions) and Winston will throw a couple of interceptable passes every game, but this should be a productive game for him, especially with Vincent Jackson and Mike Evans in the lineup, and the possible return of Austin Seferian-Jenkins.

Mike Evans

His targets are decreasing with Vincent Jackson back, but he's getting his every week. If Winston can continue to be willing to throw up the ball in the red zone like he did last week, Evans should start scoring some more touchdowns as well. Moreover, last week was really the first week he displayed the reliable hands we saw last year. He caught every catchable ball thrown his way, and made a couple of spectacular grabs. He should be a weekly start.

Doug Martin

He won't be putting up 235 yards every game and he continues to be lacking in the touchdown department, but the Colts have given up 100+ rushing yards in seven of their ten games this season, and have average to below-average rankings in every rushing defense stat. With Matt Hasselbeck at the helm of that offense, the game shouldn't be out of reach at any point for the Bucs -- meaning Martin will continue to get his yards.

Buccaneers defense

The Bucs defense is actually a surprisingly good start this year, despite a lot of struggles at the start of the season. They rank fourth in the NFL in takeaways and thirteenth in yards allowed. The biggest issue: they're also 26th in points allowed, in part because they're awful at stopping quarterbacks in the red zone. That's gotten better in recent weeks, though, as has the overall play. With Gerald McCoy finally healthy, Lavonte David getting back to form and Sterling Moore and Jude Adjei-Barimah proving to be the cornerbacks the Bucs really needed, they're looking more and more like a Lovie Smith defense. And this week, they get to face Matt Hasselbeck.

Here's a fun stat: the last two times Matt Hasselbeck faced the Buccaneers, he combined to complete 30 of 50 passes for just 280 yads, one touchdown, four interceptions, a lost fumble and a rushing touchdown. Those two games came against the Raheem Morris-led Bucs in 2009 and 2010, but the point still stands: Hasselbeck is an old, over-the-hill backup and one the Bucs should be able to take advantage. Start this defense.