Most of us have heard, perhaps from an older relative, the expression, “What am I, chopped liver!?” — the time-tested lament of someone slighted, or forgotten.

Well, there is a 202-pound package of chopped liver on the Dolphins roster right now, wrapped not in butcher’s paper and string, but rather wrapped in doubt. The chopped liver’s name is Matt Moore. He is the team’s starting quarterback, in his prime and coming off quite a good season — not that you’d know it.

Moore’s unfortunate reality is that more than a decade of franchise flux and losing since the Dan Marino era ended have made this a very bad time to be a pretty good quarterback. In a different time or maybe on a different team, Moore would be seen as a solid incumbent, as good enough. Here he is the discount cut of meat as his bosses shop with voracious desperation for filet mignon.

Brandon Marshall spoke about Moore’s plight from Hawaii the other day after he starred in the Pro Bowl with 176 receiving yards and four touchdowns.

The Pro Bowl of course is a farce of a quasi-competition. Offense and the passing game in particular benefit by rules prohibiting blitzing and press coverage, and by laissez-faire defense. That’s why there are scores like Sunday’s 59-41.

Marshall conveniently overlooked this and surmised that his huge day was simply on account of better quarterbacking than he’s used to.

Emboldened by the all-star game’s MVP trophy, Marshall said: “It says a lot when you’re playing with those type of [Pro Bowl] quarterbacks. They just put it in the right place. You have these elite quarterbacks, and they put it in the right spot to make it easy for me. It’s all the quarterbacks.”

I found the comments notable because they are a pretty direct diss of the teammate whose passes happened to help give Marshall a Pro Bowl season.

I found the comments closer to hilarious because the receiver uttering them was second in the NFL with 14 dropped passes last year including five shoulda-been TDs. A man with those dubious stats saying he needs an elite quarterback places himself among league leaders in gall.

Marshall alluded to accuracy. I would note that of the three QBs who threw to him Sunday, Ben Roethlisberger had a 63.2 completion percentage last year, Philip Rivers had 62.9 and Andy Dalton 58.1. Moore’s was 60.5. It would have been 64.6 had 14 dropped passes been caught, by the way.

Moore’s agent declined Tuesday to offer a comment from his client about Marshall’s comments. (But I did hear Matt is in remarkably good shape for a man who had just been thrown under a bus).

Marshall additionally told NFL.com he’d “reached out” to the Packers’ soon-to-be free agent QB Matt Flynn — a more direct slap at Moore, beyond the fact Flynn is presently Packers property so Marshall’s reaching out might be construed as tampering.

It isn’t only Marshall wrapping up Moore like chopped liver and all but relegating him to past tense.

General manager Jeff Ireland said, “It’s a quarterbacks league. We’ve got to do our best to make the position better.” Owner Stephen Ross has said the same.

Fence-mending

There is no doubt Miami will and should try to upgrade from Moore at the most important position, but the club also would be wise to soothe their incumbent with a little internal fence-mending and a little public respect should circumstances have Moore behind center again as the 2012 season begins.