Pittsburgh Steelers guard Ramon Foster is now in the final year of his current contract and while he has a few personal goals for the upcoming season, such as finally being named as a Pro Bowl selection, he knows that his primary goal of finally becoming a Super Bowl champion trumps everything else.
“I’ve done everything in his game except win a Super Bowl,” Foster said at the conclusion of the Steelers Wednesday OTA practice. “That’s number one to me. The personal stuff, as far as being a Pro Bowl type of guy, having that just on my stamp from a free agent guy, I’m okay with doing that, too, but the money, the accolades come last compared to winning this thing.”
Four of the five Steelers staring offensive linemen have been playing together since 2012 and the fifth, tackle Alejandro Villanueva, is now in his fourth season as a starter. That’s really unheard of these days when it comes to keeping an offensive line together that long because of several obvious factors. Foster is well-aware of that being a unique situation as well.
“And what’s so crazy is the front office recognizes it, too,” Foster said. “Ben [Roethlisberger] recognizes it and we do, too. And that’s why I said with so much talent, and I’m just speaking in our room, you gotta show the signs early on and we need to do that.”
What Foster is referring to is that he wants to see the Steelers offense be a complete unit right out the chute and remain that way the entire season.
“We have way too much talent, we’ve been together for way too long to not make a legit push,” Foster said. “We’ve made pushes, but you guys know, we’ve had hiccups in a roll during the season and they say, ‘Those guys don’t look like they’re Super Bowl-ready.’ I want to be Super Bowl ready from the beginning of the season to the end. That’s my goal.”
Should the Steelers ultimately win the Super Bowl this year, Foster, who is now 32 years old and in his 10th NFL season, knows accomplishing that goal will help out everybody from a financial aspect and not just the players hitting free agency.
“You see teams poaching players. If they win a Super Bowl, they poach them,” Foster said. “Because why? They have that recipe, they think, to help them win and that goes along with my motto to everybody is, if we win, everybody eats. I don’t care if that’s appearances in the offseason, it might be contracts for guys, it might be extensions for guys, but you win, everybody wants a piece of you.”
Foster is set to earn a base salary of just $2.675 million in 2018 and that’s a bargain considering how consistently he’s played over the years. In fact, you could put together a decent argument that Foster has been snubbed a time or two during his long career when it comes to the Pro Bowl. Foster somewhat admitted Wednesday that he thinks he may have been snubbed last year and feels like he should have been a Pro Bowler along with Villanueva, center Maurkice Pouncey and guard David DeCastro.
“I was first alternate,” Foster said on Wednesday. “It was just one of those things that didn’t happen. That’s why I put it on there [list of goals for 2018], make it without being an alternate. So, just a personal goal. That’s offseason training motivation right there.”
If Foster does ultimately finally become a Pro Bowler in 2018, he’ll have no issues skipping the annual all-star game in order to play in the Super Bowl instead.
“Maybe I don’t play in it then,” Foster said. “I’m okay with that, too. I just want the jersey and put it on my resume.”
