Tyke Tolbert (born September 15, 1967) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

coach and former player who is the

wide receivers coach In American football, a position coach is a team official in charge of coaching a specific position group. Position coaches have more specialized duties than the head coach, assistant coach, and the offensive and defensive coordinators. Common ...

for the Chicago Bears of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). Tolbert previously served as wide receivers coach for the Arizona Cardinals, Buffalo Bills,

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. ...

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

and New York Giants.

College playing career

Tyke attended

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

(LSU), where he played wide receiver for the

LSU Tigers football The LSU Tigers football program, also known as the Fighting Tigers, represents Louisiana State University in college football. The Tigers compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Th ...

team.Buffalo Bills
/ref>

Coaching career

College Coaching

Tolbert started his coaching career as a

graduate assistant A graduate assistant serves in a support role at a university, usually while completing post-graduate education. The assistant typically helps professors with instructional responsibilities as teaching assistants or with academic research respo ...

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

in the spring of

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

and quickly transferred to Northeast Louisiana to also work as a graduate assistant in the fall. He would go on to coach wide receivers at

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

in the spring of 1995, before once again returning in the fall to Northeast Louisiana, where he assisted in coaching the team’s

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Lik ...

s for three seasons. He would then go on to coach tight ends at Auburn in the

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

season. Tyke would spend the next three years (1999-2001) as the wide receivers coach/recruiting coordinator at Louisiana-Lafayette, followed by a year serving as a tight ends coach/recruiting coordinator at

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

in 2002, before making the jump to the NFL the following season.

Start in the NFL

Tyke was a part of the NFL's Minority Internship Program with the Detroit Lions in training camp during

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

, and once again in 2001 with the

Cardinals Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

Arizona Cardinals

Tyke’s first official position in the NFL was as the wide receivers coach for the Arizona Cardinals in 2003. He would go on to help rookie wide receiver Anquan Boldin earn offensive rookie of the year.

Buffalo Bills

Tolbert would spend 6 years coaching wide receivers for the Bills.

Carolina Panthers

In 2010 Tolbert was the wide receivers coach for the

Denver Broncos

Tolbert was the

for the

from 2011 until the end of the 2017 season. On February 7, 2016, Tolbert was part of the Broncos coaching staff that won

Super Bowl 50 Super Bowl 50 was an American football game to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2015 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos defeated the National Football Conference (NFC) cha ...

. In the game, the Broncos defeated the

by a score of 24–10.

New York Giants

On January 24, 2018, Tolbert joined the New York Giants to serve as wide receivers coach under new head coach Pat Shurmur. Following the appointment of Joe Judge as head coach in January 2020, Tolbert was retained in his role.

Chicago Bears

On February 2, 2022, Tolbert joined the Chicago Bears to serve as the wide receiver coach & passing game coordinator under head coach

Matt Eberflus Matthew Charles Eberflus (born May 17, 1970) is an American football coach who is the head coach of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the defensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts from 201 ...

References

External links

Tyke Tolbert New York Giants profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tolbert, Tyke 1967 births Living people African-American coaches of American football African-American players of American football American football wide receivers Arizona Cardinals coaches Auburn Tigers football coaches Buffalo Bills coaches Carolina Panthers coaches Denver Broncos coaches Florida Gators football coaches Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football coaches Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks football coaches LSU Tigers football players New York Giants coaches Ohio Bobcats football coaches People from Conroe, Texas Sportspeople from Texas Conroe High School alumni 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople Chicago Bears coaches