The Broncos could lose a player they once had huge wraps on in Blake Mozer, all because they are set to re-sign a veteran in his position.
Since making his NRL debut in 2023, Mozer has played 12 games.
With a bad run of injuries, it has hampered Mozer's development and now sits behind three veteran dummy-halves in Cory Paix, Billy Walters and Ben Hunt.
Mozer was a junior Queensland captain and has long been regarded as Brisbane's next long-term hooker.
However, with the club set to extend Billy Walters and having already extended Ben Hunt for another year, Mozer could become expendable.
On NRL 360 Monday night, journalist Brent Read revealed the Broncos were keen to lock down Walters beyond this season after months of speculation about whether the club would keep him.
Walters suffered an ACL injury against the Canberra Raiders in the first week of the finals.
“It looks like he (Walters) will extend and it will have ramifications for young Blake Mozer who people declared was the next Cameron Smith,” Read said.
“That's a big call,” NRL 360 host Braith Anasta stated.
“Things haven't gone well for Blake. He's struggled with injury, and he might be on the move,” Read added.
In June, Ben Hunt extended his contract with the Broncos for another season.
He'll be 37 next March, and while Mozer is only 22, his development has been repeatedly interrupted by injury setbacks that have kept him out of first grade.
Anasta questioned whether signing Hunt to an extension could prove a long-term problem for the Broncos.
“Is that the risk with re-signing Ben Hunt, that you'll lose a couple of players?” Anasta asked.
“I'd imagine that if Ben Hunt hadn't re-signed, Blake Mozer wouldn't be potentially squeezed out, so that is a risk,” Read said.
“I'm a bit torn on the Ben Hunt one because they haven't paid him much.”
The Broncos have shifted their long-term dummy-half plans, with Cameron Bukowski set to be the piece that will fit alongside their star players.
Bukowski made his first-grade debut this year against the Wests Tigers in Round 7 and has spent the last three seasons with the Wynnum Manly Seagulls in the QLD Cup reserve grade competition.
His father, Gary Bukowski, was a former rugby league player in the Brisbane Rugby League Premiership for the Southern Suburbs and the NRL for the Western Suburbs Magpies.
Cameron's mother, Louise, has played a huge role in the Broncos' front office since 2000.
She first joined the club as Chief Financial Officer before she became the club's Salary Cap Manager and Company Secretary.
The Broncos, in whatever direction they go, are not afraid of making long-term decisions with a spine position after releasing Coby Black to the Canberra Raiders in the off-season.
Blake Mozer's time at Red Hill could be declining exponentially with all of the factors playing into consideration.
In the earlier stages of 2025, Mozer battled a shoulder problem and then suffered a broken jaw, ruling him out of Brisbane's title-winning run and has continued to miss time on the sidelines with injuries.
Mozer has played 55 games in Queensland Cup since 2022 with the South Logan Magpies and Burleigh Bears combined.
With the Bears this season, he has only played in 9 games, with two of those games that he started.
The 22-year-old is set to be a free agent from November 1 and could potentially become a buy-out candidate if he gets an offer from a rival club.
