ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Bills coach Sean McDermott described the reason the team cut Robert Foster last month as being a wakeup call for the rookie receiver.
Looking back, Foster fully acknowledges it was a message received loud and clear now that he’s back on the roster after two days of being unemployed followed by a two-week stint on the practice squad.
“I needed it. I needed to be cut because at the end of the day, it helped me,” Foster said Wednesday. “It made me work on things that I needed to work on. It made me do a lot more things that I could do to benefit the team.”
Evidence of how motivated he’s become was apparent following the formal end of practice.
Rather than head straight to the locker room to pal around with his teammates as he did in the past, Foster, first, spent extra time catching passes from rookie starter Josh Allen.
He then worked on running routes against a defensive back, before spending yet another 10 minutes catching one ball after another being spit out by a Jugs machine.
It’s not that Foster wasn’t doing enough post-practice work before he was cut. It’s more like he wasn’t doing any.
“That’s the thing, I wasn’t doing some of the things that I’m doing now,” he said. “That’s why I say I try to embrace it all now.”
The payoff is showing up on the field.