Quinnen Williams will get to see his college buddy Josh Jacobs on Sunday when the Jets and Raiders face off at MetLife Stadium.

The two attended Alabama together, both spent time on the bench before becoming key players last season and then first-round draft picks. But their rookie years have gone differently. Jacobs is the fourth-leading rusher in the NFL and a leading candidate for Offensive Rookie of the Year. Williams has only 1.5 sacks and has yet to have the impact expected of a No. 3-overall draft choice.

It is too soon to make any pronouncements about what the 21-year-old Williams will or won’t be in the NFL, but it is fair to label this a slow start for the big defensive lineman from Alabama.

“How many games have we played? He’s a young player,” Jets coach Adam Gase said Wednesday. “He’s still learning. He works hard. He’ll find his way. He’ll find his way to be an impactful player. It hasn’t happened for him exactly yet in the last couple of games. He’ll just keep working and he’ll find a way to be a big part of what we’re doing.”

It is hard to evaluate just how well Williams has played. Looking just at sacks is a flawed way to evaluate interior linemen, who are often asked to take on blockers to free up teammates to make plays. The Jets are the No. 1 defense against the run this year, and Williams has played a role in that. But it is just that Williams has not had many moments that make you say, “Wow” as he did as a college player last year.

The Jets chose him over pass-rusher Josh Allen, who has eight sacks this season for the Jaguars. Nick Bosa, who went one pick ahead of Williams to the 49ers, has seven sacks. Those are players Williams will be compared to in his career, whether it is fair or not.

“I really don’t care about being compared,” Williams said. “It really don’t matter to me. I play defensive tackle. They play defensive end. We really can’t get compared. It would be crazy for anybody to compare us. We do different things, different schemes, different jobs, different side of the country. You can’t really compare us.”

Williams’ development may have been stunted a little by a high-ankle sprain he suffered in the Jets’ first game. It kept him out for two weeks.

He also has had a more limited role in Gregg Williams’ defense than expected. He is playing around 60 percent of the defensive snaps, spending long periods on the sideline. When he is on the field, he is facing double-teams often and has been asked to play a role in the defense that sometimes prevents him from being an explosive playmaker.

“I look at it as that defense as a whole is playing well, especially against the run,” Gase said. “I know those guys are working hard to help each other free up. There might be times where he’s doing something where he’s sacrificing himself to help somebody else pop free.

“We just look at it as a group so much. If those guys are all doing their job, somebody’s going to get free. It just hasn’t been him.”

Williams said nothing has really been challenging for him at the NFL level yet. In fact, he said he feels like pro football is easier than college because he can concentrate just on football and not on classwork, too.

Over the last two weeks, Williams has only one assist and no solo tackles. This season, he has 20 tackles, two for a loss and four quarterback hits. He said he does not focus on the statistics.

“[If] I go in a game and have zero tackles, zero sacks but every play I dominated my man in front of me, and I’d be good with that,” Williams said. “I really don’t look up and see, ‘Oh man this, oh man that. I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do that.’ I just go out there and do my job and making sure I’m doing it right every time.”

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