Robert Foster played only 19 games in four seasons at Alabama.

Despite catching only 35 passes in his career, Foster's speed warranted an invite to the NFL Scouting Combine.

On Friday afternoon, as the Bills made their way through their second training camp practice at St. John Fisher College, rookie wide receiver Robert Foster had a lot of time on his hands.

With 12 receivers on the current 90-man roster, reps are limited at this stage, especially for an undrafted free agent like Foster. But this doesn’t mean it wasn’t a productive day for the 6-foot-2, 196-pound speedster.

“Everything is based on the coach’s decision, so I’m just going by what everyone wants me to do,” Foster said. “Everything I’m doing right now is getting mental reps, watching the vets and do everything that I can to learn from them. My job is when I have the opportunity, embrace it, and if not, take the mental reps from the vets.”

When the practice was over, Foster was glued to wide receivers’ coach Terry Robiskie’s side, and the man who has been coaching in the NFL for 37 years gave him some bonus instruction as they walked off the field.

Foster signed with the Bills shortly after the 2018 draft when no team called his name, something that wasn’t exactly a surprise since he played in only 19 games for the Alabama Crimson Tide across four seasons, catching a mere 35 passes for 389 yards and 3 touchdowns in an offense that, during his time, was usually run-oriented.

However, new Bills’ offensive coordinator Brian Daboll was in that same job at Alabama last year, and that relationship paid off for Foster. When the Bills were scanning the prospect list for receivers, Daboll vouched for the kid who, despite his limited statistics, was still invited to the NFL Scouting Combine.

“Obviously, I was with him for a year, so you get to know your players,” said Daboll. “You get certain things (when) you’re around a person every day, whether it’s Robert or somebody else. If you’re around them, you’ll give your input in terms of work ethic, and character issues or anything like that. He’s a good kid, he’s a hard worker, he’s got good speed. We expect him to continue to work hard.”

Foster, who hails from Monaca, Pennsylvania, doesn’t have good speed, he has great speed. In fact, on an Alabama team that is overloaded with five-star players, Foster was one of the two or three fastest on the 2017 club. That’s why he got a chance to go to the Combine, and while there, he ran a 4.41 in the 40-yard dash, fifth-best among all receivers in Indianapolis.

It wasn’t enough for a team to pick him, but the Bills feel they were lucky to get him when the undrafted free agent signing frenzy began.

“Regardless of whether you’re a first-round draft pick or a tryout player, it doesn’t matter now,” he said. “We’re all on equal footing. I want to show these coaches that I’m reliable. I want the coaches to understand that I can be a player for the Buffalo Bills.”

In reality, Foster is just glad he has the opportunity to be alive because when he was in high school, he survived a deadly situation. Traveling to Florida with some of his high school teammates for a 7-on-7 tournament, the group had stopped in Durham, North Carolina.

Foster and his friend, Darrell Turner, were leaving a restaurant when they were approached by a man named Gabriel Gamez. Somehow, an argument ensued, and Gamez pulled out a gun and began firing. Turner was killed, and Foster narrowly escaped being shot in the head. Gamez was convicted of first-degree murder.

“That was hard for Robert to deal with,” Foster’s father, Robert Sr., told Al.com a few years ago. “That was one of Robert’s best friends. They had developed a friendship. They went all over the country playing football. And you watch one of your friends die right in front of you, and he almost lost his life. Robert’s a very spiritual young man. ... And along with him already being humble, that really humbled him a lot.”

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Foster was asked about the incident Friday, and he politely declined to go into detail.

“I really don’t want to dwell on that,” he said. “It was a setback … it could have been me. You have to be able to move on. Everything that happened, it happened for a reason. He’s in a good place now and he’s watching over me and he’s proud of me and all of our teammates.”

Foster is probably a long shot to make the Bills’ 53-man roster, but if he shows enough this summer, he could warrant a spot on the practice squad because the stopwatch says he’s the fastest wideout on the team, and that’s the one attribute the underwhelming Bills’ receiving corps lacks the most.

“He’s obviously got a good redeeming quality in (his) speed,” said Daboll. “He has some familiarity. We’ve been out here with no pads, not a lot of press coverage or anything like that, so he knows he’s got a long way to go like the rest of us.”

MAIORANA@Gannett.com