The development of highly touted young quarterbacks is always a fascinating study. Do they get on the field right away, or sit back and watch an established veteran for a few weeks or months, perhaps an entire season, before getting a shot?

It is not yet fully known which direction the Giants are headed with Daniel Jones, taken with the No. 6-overall pick in April’s draft. His role to start his rookie season is as the backup to Eli Manning, but that could change, depending on Manning’s performance and, more critically, the ability of the team to win games and exist on the fringe of playoff contention.

The Bills went a different direction with Josh Allen, a player they traded up (from No. 12 to No. 7) to secure in the first round of the 2018 draft. Allen — big, athletic, raw and strong-armed out of Wyoming — did not win the job coming out of last summer but did not sit long behind Nathan Peterman.

After a terrible first game, Peterman was benched, and the Bills handed the ball to Allen as their starter. Allen hurt his elbow in Week 6 and missed four games. He ended up starting 11 games and compiled a passer rating of 68.2 — results in keeping with what many scouts saw in him: an interesting physical specimen with plenty of room for development.

“It was really kind of baptized by fire,’’ said Allen, who takes aim with his arm and legs at the Giants on Sunday. “There were a lot of situations I was thrown into that I wasn’t maybe fully prepared for, but I learned from ’em. That’s one thing I can take from last year. It wasn’t all pretty. The last four or five weeks I came back I just feel I was in a better place mentally, routine-wise, just kind of learning how to be a professional football player from guys like Derek Anderson and Matt Barkley.’’

Allen is far from a finished product. He turned the ball over four times (two interceptions, two fumbles) in the season-opening victory over the Jets, but he did bring the Bills back from a 16-0 second-half deficit with 14 fourth-quarter points, running for a touchdown and passing 38 yards to John Brown for another.

“I’ve been around it a couple times,’’ Bills coach Sean McDermott said of working with young quarterbacks. “In Philadelphia we drafted Donovan McNabb, and again in Carolina when we drafted Cam Newton. You have to continually chase the vision while trying to be as good as you can. With respect to fundamentals and everything, the young quarterback will develop over the course of time, and within that there will be some growing pains. That’s where he has to continue to grow and learn, and the rest of the team has to step their game up.’’

Jones will wait behind Manning until a changing of the guard takes place. When that happens, the clock starts on his on-field learning curve. At this point last season, Allen was on his way to starting that clock.

“You can be super deep into your playbook, you can know everything, but until you have 11 guys flying around you, until you feel that and can feel the pace for the game kind of evolve, I don’t think you can have much success,’’ Allen said. “I wasn’t perfect last year, I’m still not perfect now. I never will be perfect, but as long as I keep learning from situations and mistakes and allow our team to be put in good positions to win football games, I think that’s really all that matters.’’