Alabama’s bye week arrived at an opportune time for Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban. With no game to prepare for on Saturday, the coach will be able to watch two of his quarterbacks square off in the NFL Sunday night game.

Former Alabama teammates Jalen Hurts with the Philadelphia Eagles and Tua Tagovailoa with the Miami Dolphins will lead the opposing teams in Week 7′s marquee game, which kicks off at 7:20 p.m. CDT on NBC.

“These two guys that you’re talking about playing against each other tonight,” Saban said during a Sunday appearance on ESPN, “it’s almost destiny the way these guys worked and competed with each other that they would have the chance to do it again in the NFL, and I’m very proud of both of them.”

The quarterbacks won’t be the only former Alabama players that Saban will be watching in the Dolphins-Eagles contest. Twelve Crimson Tide alumni are eligible to play in the Sunday night game, and 66 former Alabama standouts already have played in the NFL this season.

“That’s the hard thing about these NFL games,” Saban said. “You know you showed all those guys on different NFL rosters, I’ve just grown accustomed to rooting for our guys. I want them both to do well. It’s not just about winning and losing. It’s about playing great and creating value for their future. I hope both guys can do that and all of our guys can do that in the game tonight.”

This won’t be the first time that former Alabama quarterbacks have squared off in the NFL this season. Hurts already has played against Mac Jones. Tagovailoa faced off with Bryce Young last week, and he has Jones on the schedule next week for the second time in 2023.

But Hurts and Tagovailoa have a tangled history at Alabama. Hurts helped the Tide reach consecutive CFP national-championship games in 2016 and 2017. But in the latter contest, Tagovailoa came in with Alabama trailing Georgia 13-0 at halftime and rallied the Tide to a 26-23 overtime victory.

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Tagovailoa took over the starting spot in 2018, with Hurts now the backup. But the former starter didn’t pout, and what Hurts did that season is one of the reasons he’s in the NFL today, Saban said.

“I remember the conversation when Jalen decided to stay,” Saban said. “I said, ‘Look, if you want to play in the NFL someday, and I know that’s your goal, you have to get better as a passer. Reading things better, get the ball out of your hand quicker, and you can do that just as well here by staying here in practice every day because of type of offense that we have as you can any place else.’ And he decided to do that, and he embrace it. …

“I honestly believe that Jalen improved more as a passer during the year that he wasn’t playing than in the years that he did play. He went 26-2 as a starter, but then Tua came along in the national championship game, which we’ve seen. But I really do think that the conversation that we had, he really took it to hard that I’m going become a better passer, I’m going to read coverages better, I’m going to get the ball out of my hand quicker, try to get a little more accurate, and I really do think he improved dramatically in the year that he didn’t play. And when he got an opportunity, he played great.”

Tagovailoa leads the NFL in passing yards and touchdown passes.

“Tua is a quick decision-maker,” Saban said. “He’s going to get the ball out of his hand quick. Understands the offense well. It doesn’t surprise me that with the players he’s surrounded with that he’s having a great year.”

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