It once looked as if Josh Allen (the pass rusher, not the quarterback) would be coming to the Giants. He never did. On Sunday, though, Allen (the pass rusher) will be coming for the Giants.

Entrusted with the task of stopping him: Evan Neal and Andrew Thomas, the two young offensive tackles. Allen, Neal and Thomas are all former first-round draft picks, taken within the top seven selections in their respective drafts. Add in the outside linebacker on the other side, Travon Walker (the No. 1 pick in 2021) and this should definitely be considered a high-class confrontation set to go down Sunday when the Giants face the Jaguars in Jacksonville.

“If you want to look at it like that,’’ Neal said Wednesday after practice.

We do want to look at it like that.

“Then, hey, I guess it will be a nice matchup,’’ Neal said, smiling. “Just gonna be fun to go out there and compete against those guys.’’

Neal has rebounded nicely after allowing three sacks to DeMarcus Lawrence in the Week 3 loss to the Cowboys. Neal (Alabama) played against Walker (Georgia) twice in college.

“He’s a real powerful guy, explosive, strong guy, long arms,’’ Neal said. “Josh Allen, he’s a real fast guy, isn’t as heavy, I feel like he plays with a high motor based on what I’ve seen.’’

Walker has one sack and three quarterback hits in his first six NFL games.

“You can see how they affect the game,’’ Daniel Jones said. “Both of them are really good players, productive in the pass game, getting to the quarterback and do a good job stopping the run also.’’

Allen leads the Jaguars this season with three sacks and 10 quarterback hits. He made the Pro Bowl as a rookie, when he had 10.5 sacks. In 46 career games, he has 23.5 sacks, five forced fumbles, 145 combined tackles, 58 quarterback hits and 30 tackles for loss.

Giants fans were poised to hear Allen’s name called early in the 2019 NFL Draft. There were certainly rumblings about Jones, the quarterback at Duke, seemingly a more athletic Eli Manning clone, but the feeling was No. 6 was too high for Jones and that the Giants could get him at No. 17, one of the picks they received from the Browns after shipping Odell Beckham Jr. to Cleveland.

The top of that draft went as expected — quarterback Kyler Murray to the Cardinals at No. 1, followed by defensive end Nick Bosa to the 49ers and defensive lineman Quinnen Williams to the Jets. The Raiders sat at No. 4 and they blew up the board by taking Clemson edge-rusher Clelin Ferrell, a player few valued up so high — for good reason, as it turns out.

That surprise selection allowed the Buccaneers at No. 5 to get their target, linebacker Devin White and left the Giants at No. 6 with all sorts of options. Badly in need of an edge rusher, Allen was sitting there, coming off a spectacular 17-sack season at Kentucky. It felt like a perfect fit. The Giants had him rated highly. But they were smitten with Jones and then the pick was announced it was met with rousing boos and jeers. It was the second time in as many drafts the Giants passed on a Josh Allen, as they did not go with the strong-armed Wyoming quarterback when they had the chance in 2018.

A year later, the Jaguars at No. 7 were thrilled. They did not expect Allen to be there.

“In most of the scenarios that we put together, the hypothetical issues, he was gone,” former Giants coach Tom Coughlin, at the time the Jaguars executive vice president of football operations, said back then.

Coughlin was set to take Iowa tight end T.J. Hockenson, expecting the Giants to grab Allen after the Raiders passed on him.

Allen is currently the No. 10-rated edge rusher in the league, according to Pro Football Focus. Ferrell, who has eight career sacks in 47 games, is No. 51.

“Josh is a player that has been dynamic and we’re trying to complement him with Travon to get them both around the quarterback as much as we can,’’ Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said. “Josh is a tremendous leader. He works extremely hard. One thing I don’t want him to do is get frustrated with maybe the sack production or things of that nature. But really like where Josh is and how he’s been playing.’’

Allen, Walker, Neal and Thomas will see plenty of each other on Sunday, four highly rated draft picks doing what they do best — two protecting the quarterback, two trying to disrupt the quarterback.