Former DB Orlando Scandrick: Tom Brady deserves 'benefit of the doubt' over training camp break

Talking heads throughout the NFL community continue to offer hot takes and even bizarre theories about the 11-day break/vacation that quarterback Tom Brady enjoyed away from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for unspecified "personal reasons" during the preseason. 

Multiple individuals have gone so far as to publicly ask if Brady truly is "all-in" on winning with the 2022 Buccaneers beginning with the Week 1 game at the Dallas Cowboys considering he retired for roughly six weeks this past winter. However, one former opponent suggested some are making too big a deal out of Brady's absence considering he's a seven-time Super Bowl champion who has seen everything a defense could possibly throw at him.

"I think it's fine," longtime Cowboys cornerback Orlando Scandrick told TMZ Sports. "I think you've got to weigh the reward and the risk. I think Tom Brady's a very, very proven person in this league, and if anybody is going to get the benefit of the doubt, it's going to be him and I would have given it to him."

Scandrick spent nine seasons with the Cowboys and 11 in the NFL overall. He last played during the 2019 campaign. 

During the conversation, the 35-year-old added he would've told Brady as a teammate: "Do what you got to do."

Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles and general manager Jason Licht repeatedly insisted Brady's break was preplanned and cleared by the organization, but the G.O.A.T. offered little explanation for his hiatus following this past Saturday's preseason finale at the Indianapolis Colts. 

"I'm 45 years old, man. There's a lot of s--- going on," Brady said during his postgame comments. 

Meanwhile, former Buccaneers head coach and current senior advisor for the club Bruce Arians told ESPN's "First Take" on Tuesday that Tampa Bay fans shouldn't worry about Brady's dedication to the cause. 

"Watching him at practice every day, he’s throwing the ball better than he has in like 10 years," Arians said of the future Hall of Famer. "When he’s on the practice field, the energy level in the whole building goes up. Not worried about Tom. He’s one guy you don’t have to worry about."