When quarterback Tua Tagovailoa leads the Miami Dolphins offense against the New York Jets defense during the NFL’s first Black Friday game, he’ll face two of Alabama’s best pro alumni in linebacker C.J. Mosley and defensive tackle Quinnen Williams.

Mosley has earned Pro Bowl selection five times, and Williams was a first-team All-Pro selection last season.

Tagovailoa is another of the 69 former Alabama players who have appeared in the 2023 NFL season, and he doesn’t think he gets an alumni-club break when he faces defensive players from the Crimson Tide.

“I don’t think they take it easy,” Tagovailoa said. “That’s not the way we grew up practicing with each other when we were all in college during the same time, and I don’t expect that as we play each other because I’m not giving that to them.”

Mosley preceded Tagovailoa and Williams at Alabama, leaving as a two-time consensus All-American after receiving the SEC Defensive Player of the Year Award and the Dick Butkus Award as the nation’s best linebacker for the 2013 season.

Tagovailoa and Williams were Alabama teammates in the 2017 and 2018 seasons. In 2018, Tagovailoa was a consensus All-American and the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy and Williams was a unanimous All-American and the winner of the Outland Trophy as the nation’s best interior lineman.

“I’ve played against Quinnen,” Tagovailoa said. “I played against him, and I played with him. Very strong. It’s tough. The thing that he likes to do is he likes to get one-on-one matchups. That’s really his game.

“It’s not just him. It’s their guys outside as well that make that defense go. All those guys, they’ll have to be accounted for.”

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On Sunday, Miami defeated the Las Vegas Raiders 20-13 and New York lost to the Buffalo Bills 32-6. To prepare for the first of their two meetings this season, the Dolphins and Jets had a short week that included a holiday.

“It is more challenging,” Tagovailoa said on Tuesday. “… There’s the science behind the 48-hour time window of practicing or not practicing, so it’s a lot of mental reps for all of us. I think we’ll probably have one day of field practice to just run around and make sure everything is on point and on time. But outside of that, what makes these short weeks tough is a lot of these things are mental — more mental than physical.”

As AFC East rivals, though, the Dolphins and Jets ought to be intimately familiar with each other. But Tagovailoa hasn’t played New York in almost two years. Tagovailoa sustained two concussions last season, and after each, he missed a Miami game against the Jets.

“Yeah, it does,” Tagovailoa said about familiarity with a division opponent helping short-week preparation. “But for myself, it also doesn’t because I wasn’t able to play against this team last year for the two times that our team played them.

“Will they play us the way they did last year? I’m not too sure. As we’ve watched the film, we can only assume what they’re going to be running. But if they come out with something different and want to put an umbrella over those two guys with Jaylen (Waddle) and Tyreek (Hill), so be it. We will have to adjust. And if not, then we’ll play the game the way we see it.”

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The Dolphins and Jets kick off at 2 p.m. CST Friday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Prime Video will televise the game.

Miami leads the AFC East at 7-3. But the Dolphins have lost their past three road games.

New York has lost three in a row to fall to 4-6. The Jets plan to have their third starting quarterback of the season by giving Tim Boyle a chance on Friday.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.