Former Alabama quarterbacks squared off in the first week of the NFL’s 2023 season, and they will again in Week 2 on Sunday night.

Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles defeated Mac Jones and the New England Patriots 25-20 last week. Jones will be pitted against another quarterback who was ahead of him on the Crimson Tide depth chart this week, too, when Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins visit New England.

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“Yeah, Bama on Bama,” Tagovailoa said. “That’s what happened last week with Jalen and Mac. Mac’s got to go again — Bama on Bama — so we’ll see. It’ll be fun.”

Jones is the bridge between the four current NFL starting quarterbacks who played at Alabama. He redshirted in 2017 when Hurts led the Tide to the CFP national-championship game, only for Tagovailoa to throw the winning touchdown pass in overtime. Jones was behind Tagovailoa and Hurts in 2018, backed up Tagovailoa in 2019 and led Alabama to the CFP national championship in 2020, when Bryce Young served as his backup.

The No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft, Young started for the Carolina Panthers in his NFL debut last week.

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The NFL schedule has three more Alabama-quarterback matchups on the 2023 regular-season schedule, with the games coming in consecutive weeks. Young and Carolina visit Tagovailoa and Miami on Oct. 15, Tagovailoa and the Dolphins visit Hurts and the Eagles on Oct. 22 and Jones and New England visit Tagovailoa and Miami on Oct. 29.

Jones said his attention for games is on the opponent’s defense, not its quarterback.

“I never try to focus on that part of it,” Jones said. “It’s really us against the defense, which Miami has a really good defense.

“Yeah, I have a lot of respect for the guys that I played with in college. They’ve done a great job in the NFL. I learned a lot from each one of them differently, some things from one guy and some things from another.”

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It wasn’t hard to find pundits and fans who wondered if Tagovailoa was the right quarterback for the Miami Dolphins after his second NFL season.

After new coach Mike McDaniel changed the Dolphins’ offense last season and Tagovailoa led the NFL in passing-efficiency rating, the naysayers mainly harped on the quarterback’s injury history.

After Tagovailoa threw for 466 yards and three touchdowns in Miami’s 36-34 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers to open the 2023 season last week, the detractors have disappeared.

Jones has something in common with the Miami QB besides their Crimson Tide background: It wasn’t hard to find pundits and fans who wondered if Jones was the right quarterback for the Patriots after his second NFL season.

Will a change in offenses give the same third-year boost to Jones that Tagovailoa got? The Patriots brought aboard Bill O’Brien from Alabama as their offensive coordinator for this season.

Tagovailoa said he can’t compare his situation with Jones’ because he hasn’t “paid attention to the noise.”

“But I know that Mac is a competitor,” Tagovailoa said. “I know that he’s going to want to make things right, so it’s a no-brainer for me that regardless of the outside talk, he’s going to be himself, that he’s going to go out there and do all he can to help his team win.”

Jones opened the season by throwing more passes than he ever had in an NFL game. Against Philadelphia, Jones completed 35-of-54 passes for 316 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.

“I think the biggest thing for me is the 24-hour rule win or lose,” Jones said. “Just enjoy the win if you win and then learn from the loss if you lose. Just trying to get better at those things, apply those things this week in practice and move on to a really good team, honestly, just as good of a defense. They’re really good up front. They’ve got everybody back pretty much, and it’s always been a big challenge going against these guys. They’re definitely one of the top defenses, in my opinion.”

In four games against Miami, Jones has passed for 959 yards and five touchdowns. In his most recent outing against the Dolphins, Jones completed 20-of-33 passes for 204 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions in a 23-21 victory in New England’s next-to-last game in the 2022 season.

But Miami has changed defenses since then, with Vic Fangio coming aboard for his 19th season as an NFL defensive coordinator.

“I think coach Fangio has a lot of respect around the league,” Jones said. “He’s been around for a long time. … He’s called a lot of football plays, and his defense is pretty sound always. The guys know what to do. They’re very disciplined. I think each week, there’s going to be some carryover, just with coaching trees and things like that. But at the end of the day, he’s kind of the top dog. He’s the originator of all the stuff, and he’s done a great job his whole career. I’m just looking forward to going against him.”

The Dolphins and Patriots will square off at 7:20 p.m. CST Sunday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. NBC will televise the game.

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