For the second time this season, former Alabama Crimson Tide stars Tua Tagovailoa and Mac Jones will face off, as the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots are set for their regular season finales in Week 18.

Jones and Tagovailoa etched their names in Alabama history after they each guided the Crimson Tide to national championship wins. And now, they have made their place in the NFL as starting quarterbacks.

During a press conference ahead of the matchup between the Patriots and Dolphins, Jones was asked on who should Alabama fans be rooting for this week in this upcoming AFC East clash. The rookie quarterback instead took some time to laud the second-year Dolphins passer.

“I think it's more just the Patriots vs. the Dolphins,” Jones said. “Tua's a great quarterback and he's done great stuff throughout his whole career. When we were together, he was a great teammate and a great player. Like I always say, we get a chance to go against their defense and they get to go against ours. We have two good teams competing against each other, so it'll be a lot of fun.”

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Jones also lauded Tagovailoa for helping him to prepare for the 2021 NFL Draft.

“I think the whole experience was a learning experience and the more information you can gain when trying to play in the NFL, the better, so I reached out to a lot of different people,” Jones said. “Obviously, I have a lot of room to grow and I'm still trying to learn. He's been a good resource, obviously, in the pre-draft process, but now that we're in the season, we're both just kind of doing our own thing.”

Tagovailoa had the last laugh in his first encounter with Jones in Week 1 of the regular season, as he guided the Dolphins to a narrow 17-16 win against the Patriots. The two former Crimson Tide quarterbacks each recorded one passing touchdown in the contest.

This upcoming duel between Tagovailoa and Jones could possibly be their last one for some time, especially as the former has been in the rumor mill over the past year regarding a move away from the Dolphins. Thus, Tagovailoa sure may want to get some more bragging rights by moving to a 2-0 record over Jones this week.