Edge shuffling rather than Te'o deal to cover Broncos' $2.5m hole

Brisbane could be without as much as $2.5 million in edge talent for next week's crunch clash with the Roosters but will look within rather than rush through a minimum wage deal to bring Ben Te'o back to the club.

The Broncos 34-6 round 3 loss to Parramatta was compounded by the loss of new skipper Alex Glenn (laceration) and the citing of Kotoni Staggs for a high tackle that has him facing a one-week suspension.

A couple of weeks out looms for Glenn given the risk of post-surgery infection, joining stars David Fifita (knee), Tevita Pangai jnr (suspension) and Jack Bird (ACL) as big name outs for the Broncos.

Staggs is likely to join them for Friday's showdown with the reigning premiers unless he beats a grade two high tackle charge, bringing the likes of Jesse Arthurs, Xavier Coates and Tesi Niu into contention for backline berths.

Te'o meanwhile has been touted as a potential fix for Seibold's dwindling back-row stocks.

But NRL.com understands the ex-English rugby international would not be considered for an immediate start when his current contract with Japan's Sunwolves in the Super Rugby expires.

Te'o has been training with Brisbane's fringe players at Red Hill in recent weeks.

Seibold has stressed repeatedly that a contract around $100,000 is all the Broncos can offer Te'o due to salary cap constraints, while he would be required to get himself 'rugby league fit' over the course of several weeks before seeing any game time.

With rookie Keenan Palasia also out long-term due to an ACL rupture, Brisbane's edge depth is running decidedly thin for the next few weeks, as Seibold acknowledged after Thursday's deflating loss to the Eels.

"We'll probably have our three key edge back-rowers gone for a little while at least, we'll have to see what we do there," Seibold said.

"Losing Alex at half-time, we had to shuffle a few players around, and we probably didn't quite handle that.

"They're big outs but it's not the reason why we lost."

Moving Queensland Origin prop Joe Ofahengaue or rookie Ethan Bullemor to replace Glenn on the edge is one option for Seibold.

Another would be shuffling Corey Oates in from his wing for an oft-discussed back-row foray, though it would be a bold move defensively given Roosters centre Joey Manu runs the same channel.

Highly rated 18-year-old Niu meanwhile will come into contention for an NRL debut from the wing if Arthurs moves in-field to cover Staggs.

While Niu is still on a development deal, the NRL has relaxed rules requiring special dispensation required for development players to be named before June 30 as a result of the coronavirus shutdown.