Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Buffalo Bills general manager Bill Polian referred to what he knows best when discussing the team’s current quarterback in Josh Allen: his own career.

As the former GM of the Bills and Indianapolis Colts, Polian was at the helm of those two teams and brought in each franchise’s best quarterback ever. With the Bills, it was Jim Kelly. With the Colts, Peyton Manning sits at the top (we’ll see when it’s all said and done, Andrew Luck).

While speaking to reporters at Kelly’s annual celebrity golf tournament at Terry Hills Golf Course on Monday, Polian compared Allen’s current trajectory to both Kelly’s and Manning’s early years. In case you don’t remember, things weren’t great for them early, either.

“Keep in mind, everybody should keep in mind, it was three years before we won anything with Jim,” Polian said. “And Peyton’s rookie year was the worst, at that point, in history, so it’s a work in progress, but (Allen’s) on the right track.”

As for Kelly, his early NFL career is a bit skewed since he played professionally for the Houston Gamblers of the USFL before joining the Bills, so he did have some pro experience as an NFL “rookie.” But as Polian mentions, in Kelly’s third season with the Bills in 1988, the Bills won their division. As for Manning, he had a 3-13 record as a rookie in 1998 and flipped those numbers in his second season, so there is precedence that perhaps Allen could see a big jump in 2019.

Polian sees a jump on the horizon for Allen, too.

“Just continue doing what he’s doing. Second year, he’s going to be a whole lot better than the first. The biggest jump a player makes is from his first and second year,” Polian said. “But there’s still a learning curve. I think he’ll have learned when to run and when not to run, don’t take unnecessary chances, but you know, he’s a playmaker. So he’s going to do that. It’s all part of the maturity factor.”

Certainly, the talent added along the offensive line and in playmaker roles this offseason should help Allen, too.