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.

That isn’t impossible, either.

The two main alternatives to Moore — Flynn and one Peyton Manning — carry significant, even scary risks.

I do not add the risk of Baylor’s Robert Griffin III as a third viable alternative because the competition to trade up high enough to draft him would be great, and the cost very, very high. I don’t think this management has that much daring in it.

Manning and Flynn are big gambles for very different reasons, of course.

Manning, the eventual first-ballot Hall of Famer, is 35 but more importantly trying to recover from three neck surgeries, a journey far more arduous and slow than hoped. The issue isn’t whether Manning would be available (he will be in about five weeks when the Colts release him), the issue is whether he will ever play again or instead is facing retirement as suggested by ominous, faceless “reports” slowly coalescing to a grim consensus.

The last time the Dolphins made a major medical decision on a quarterback it turned out to be an awful one that haunts the franchise still. Then-coach Nick Saban signed Daunte Culpepper because the medical advice given him was that the other choice was a bigger risk. Turned out Drew Brees was just fine. Better than fine, even.

Health warning

Manning probably would have at least two or three big seasons left in him and be a legitimate, exciting target for the Dolphins if healthy, but in his case if healthy flashes and screams in red neon, like a warning sign.

Flynn? He is healthy, coming into his prime at 26, and has been tutored in Green Bay by Aaron Rodgers and by new Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin. But Flynn would be a significant risk simply for the number two.

Two career starts.

That is less proof than Moore brought to Miami. Flynn could turn out great — and Philbin should have a better sense of that than anyone — but Flynn also could turn out to be A.J. Feeley or Matt Cassel or any other young guy who flashed big in very limited action but wilted to something far less under fulltime pressure.

My sense from a Dolphins source is Miami would pursue Manning if and only if he is verified as 100 percent healthy, but that is seen as a possibility shrinking by degrees in the rear-view mirror. Which means it is more likely the team will end up targeting Flynn. What if, though.

Say Manning is judged too big a medical risk or chose to sign elsewhere. Say the competition for Flynn is seen as too pricey for one so unproven. What if the upgrade-seeking Dolphins were left to roll dice on a lesser free agent or on a lower-ranked draft pick? Or what if Flynn were signed but proved to be less than all that.

Matt Moore could start looking pretty good again, is what I mean.

Sort of like chopped liver might if you were starving and it was what you had.