Potential Bengals Guard Option Brandon Scherff Reportedly Retires

 The Bengals' potential guard addition options got even thinner out of nowhere this month. Former All-Pro guard Brandon Scherff has reportedly retired from football as he enters the Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame.

He told writer John Bohnenkamp that he retired earlier this summer.

“It’s been something I could never dream of,” Scherff said about his career to Bohnenkamp, who noted his retirement in the induction story. “Sometimes I would tell my wife that she has to pinch me, because I’m playing a kid’s game, and being able to do it as a job is pretty amazing. Now, having kids and being able to see them after games is absolutely wonderful. So I would say it’s a dream come true. And I will be forever grateful to have had that chance.”

The 33-year-old just wrapped up his 10th NFL season. He never hit his Washington ceiling across the past three years in Jacksonville but still played respectable ball over those campaigns, including a 64.7 PFF grade (74.5 pass-blocking grade) on 1,013 snaps this past season.

He was an All-Pro player in 2020, and the retirement leaves Cincinnati with essentially one good free agent guard option left for a very shaky position: Dalton Risner.

Lucas Patrick is leading the way for the starting right guard job, pacing ahead of Cody Ford. Neither has been a consistently good player in their NFL careers.