When the Buffalo Bills’ veteran players report for training camp at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York, on Wednesday, wide receiver Robert Foster will arrive to a much different situation than he faced at his first NFL training camp last year.

In 2018, Foster came to Rochester as an undrafted rookie with only 35 receptions to show for four seasons at Alabama.

In 2019, Foster will come to training camp expecting to build on his breakout in the second half of last season.

“I think it will end up going a little bit slow for me,” Foster said. “You know what to expect now and know how to approach a game and how to get prepared for it.”

Foster beat the odds and made the Bills' regular-season roster coming out of the preseason. But six games into his career, he had two catches for 30 yards, and Buffalo released the wide receiver on Oct. 19, then re-signed Foster for its practice squad when he cleared waivers.

After three weeks on the practice squad, Foster rejoined Buffalo's active roster and caught three passes for 105 yards in a 41-10 victory over the New York Jets on Nov. 11 -- the Bills' first 100-yard receiving game since Oct. 22, 2017.

In his second game back, Foster caught his first NFL touchdown pass -- a 75-yarder -- in a 24-21 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

After the Bills released their No. 2 and No. 3 receivers, Kelvin Benjamin and Andre Holmes, Foster posted 100-yard outings in consecutive games on Dec. 9 against the Jets and Dec. 16 against the Detroit Lions.

Foster caught 25 passes for 511 yards and three touchdowns in the Bills' final seven games. He led the NFL in yards per catch (for players with at least 25 receptions) at 20.04 in 2018, joined Amari Cooper, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Michael Thomas as the only players since 2015 with at least three 100-yard games as rookies and became the first Buffalo player in 32 years with a 25-yard-or-longer reception in six consecutive games.

Foster’s impact came as no shock to Levi Wallace. Like Foster, Wallace joined the Bills as an undrafted rookie from Alabama last year and ended up starting the final seven games of the season at cornerback.

“It didn’t surprise me at all,” Wallace said. “I’ve guarded Rob for maybe six years now. I know exactly what he can do. I know how fast he is. He’s an explosive playmaker, and he did just that toward the end of the season. I’m happy for him and hope for nothing but success in the future for him.”

By the time that Foster joined the Buffalo lineup, rookie Josh Allen had ascended to starting quarterback for the Bills. The rookies had gotten an abundance of early work with each other in Buffalo's offseason program and training camp, and the connection produced results in the second half of 2018.

“He knows my craft and knows what ability I have," Foster said of Allen. "He knows what routes I’m good at and what routes I need to work on, so that’s how we just built a relationship and chemistry with one another.”

During the offseason, the Bills tried to strengthen Allen's wide-receiver targets. In free agency, Buffalo added Cole Beasley and John Brown to Foster and Zay Jones, Buffalo's leading receiver in 2018 with 56 receptions for 652 yards and seven touchdowns.

In his seventh season with the Dallas Cowboys, Beasley caught 65 passes for 672 yards and three touchdowns in 2018. Brown caught 42 passes for 715 yards and five touchdowns for the Baltimore Ravens last season.

Among the other nine wide receivers on Buffalo’s training-camp roster is former Auburn standout Duke Williams, who joined the Bills after two seasons in the Canadian Football League.

“We got Brown, we got Beasley as well, a lot of vets that are going to come in and help us and develop us as players,” Foster said. “I’m very excited for them to come in, and I’m going to take advantage of them. I want to become a great receiver, and, hopefully, they continue to help me do it as a player.”

Foster spent most of Buffalo’s offseason program working with the first-team offense, although he missed part of minicamp in June with a foot injury. The Bills are expecting him to be ready to play when training camp opens.

Buffalo will kick off its four-game preseason schedule on Aug. 8 against the Indianapolis Colts. The Bills open the regular season on Sept. 8 against the New York Jets.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.