Consider the next sentence carefully because it comes bearing good news but is also fraught with danger and the ability to derail the Dolphins’ future:

Matt Moore has done a wonderful job as the starting quarterback this season and has earned much respect and a future with the Dolphins.

That’s it. That’s the sentence.

And if you think there are only good tidings in those words, consider how teammate Reggie Bush sums up Miami’s quarterback to understand where danger lies ready for ambush.

“He is everything you need,” Bush said at one point during his Sunday news conference following the Dolphins’ 35-8 stampeding of Buffalo. “He is everything we need him to be. He is doing a great job. He’s a huge, huge, difference-maker.”

Stop right there, please. Moore has been good and, at times, very good.

He’s been a pleasant surprise. But he is definitely not everything the Dolphins need at the position.

Let us, amid the Dolphins nice three-game winning streak, not lose our perspective. More importantly, let’s not lose our minds.

Moore has proven in his seven Miami starts that he belongs in the NFL. He’s proven he’s a wonderful substitute when the starter goes down.

He’s even shown he has a spark and ability that Chad Henne, Miami’s starting quarterback the past two seasons, showed only in frustratingly rare glimpses.

But is he elite?

Moore has led the Dolphins to 11 touchdowns in their past 16 red-zone trips. Moore has led the Dolphins to three consecutive wins including two rare home wins in a row, with Sunday’s thrashing the latest of the bunch.

Moore also has led the Dolphins from the precipice of a winless abyss to some joy for the folks in the locker room and entertainment for the folks in the stands.

But when next April comes around and the Dolphins are deciding how to best improve on 2011, the general manager must draft a quarterback he thinks will become elite.

And that better happen in the first round because that’s where history screams most elite quarterbacks are selected.

That’s not an insult to Moore.

That’s just reality.

No matter how much Moore improves — and one might predict he’ll continue getting better because that’s his current trajectory — the Dolphins shouldn’t allow themselves to believe they have solved their decade-long quarterback riddle just yet.

The Dolphins obviously are not worrying about this now. We honestly have no clue who will be running this team next April, anyway. Moore is similarly free of that concern. But does he think he’s Miami’s long-term answer at quarterback?

“Yeah, I just want to keep playing well and keep winning,” he said. “Wherever that gets me or takes me, so be it. My main focus right now is just to win ballgames, spread the ball around, move the offense and win.

“That’s all I care about.”

The Dolphins brass cannot afford such a happy-go-lucky approach. The people that run the organization already are scouting every draft-eligible quarterback, including some who might not declare, with the idea they must find a quarterback.

That’s the right approach.

But that approach cannot somehow include the idea of picking a quarterback in the second or third round because, after all, Moore has shown himself to be good enough.