ChicagoBears.com | The Official Website of the Chicago Bears

Tyke Tolbert
Passing Game Coordinator / Wide Receivers
College: LSU
Hometown: Conroe, TX
Biography
Tyke Tolbert is in his second year as Chicago's pass game coordinator and wide receivers coach.
Tyke Tolbert is in his second year as Chicago's pass game coordinator and wide receivers coach.
Tolbert has accumulated 20 years of coaching experience in the NFL, spending time as a wide receivers coach with the Arizona Cardinals (2003), Buffalo Bills (2004-09), Carolina Panthers (2010), Denver Broncos (2011-17) and the New York Giants (2018-21) prior to joining the Bears in 2022.
In 2022, Tolbert helped lead a young wide receiver corps with several new faces, including wide receivers Equanimeous St. Brown and Dante Pettis, who emerged as reliable targets for quarterback Justin Fields throughout the season. St. Brown, in his first season with the Bears, recorded a career-best 377 yards from scrimmage over 16 games played (16 starts). Pettis played in all 17 games (seven starts), with three touchdowns and 282 yards from scrimmage, both of which were the best he's had since his rookie season.
In 2021, as the Giants wide receivers coach, Tolbert was instrumental in developing rookie wide receiver Kadarius Toney. The rookie led all Giants receivers in receiving yards, recording 420 yards in just 10 games. He posted a season-high 189 receiving yards at the Cowboys on Oct. 10, 2021.
In 2020, wide receiver Sterling Shepard led the Giants and tied his career high with 66 catches, marking his third season where he has finished with at least 65 receptions. He was second in receiving yards (656 yards) and tied wide receiver Darius Slayton for a team-high three touchdown catches.
In 2019, Tolbert coached a group that had four different receivers surpass the century mark at least once throughout the season. Slayton missed the first two games with an injury but had one of the best seasons by a rookie wide receiver in franchise history. The fifth-round draft pick out of Auburn led the team with 740 receiving yards and eight touchdowns. Slayton ranked among the top-five rookies in Giants history for receptions, yards and touchdown catches.
In 2018, Shepard started all 16 games and finished second amongst the wideouts with a career-high 66 receptions and 872 yards. He also had four touchdowns to his credit. Despite missing the final four games with an injury, Odell Beckham Jr. led the wide receivers with 77 catches for a team-high 1,052 yards and six touchdowns.
Prior to joining the Giants, Tolbert spent seven years with the Broncos, including the team's 2016 Super Bowl season. From 2012-16 one of Tolbert's Denver standouts, the late Demaryius Thomas, recorded at least 90 catches and 1,000 receiving yards each season to join Pro Football Hall of Famers Marvin Harrison (5) and Torry Holt (6) as the only players to reach those marks in at least five consecutive seasons. Thomas was also selected to the Pro Bowl four times.
Tolbert was also instrumental in the continued development of Emmanuel Sanders, who signed with the Broncos in 2014 and was selected to his first two Pro Bowls (2014, 2016) after producing the first three 1,000-yard receiving seasons of his career. Thomas and Sanders formed one of the best wide receiver duos in the league. In 2016, Thomas (1,083) and Sanders (1,032) each topped 1,000 receiving yards for the third consecutive year to become just the seventh pair of wide receivers in NFL history to accomplish that feat as teammates.
Tolbert coached the NFL's top wide receiver tandem in 2014. Thomas recorded 111 catches, a franchise-record 1,619 yards and 11 touchdowns and Sanders hauled in 101 receptions to go along with 1,404 receiving yards and nine touchdowns. The two recorded the most receptions (212) and receiving yards (3,023) by an NFL duo. Thomas earned his third Pro Bowl selection and joined Pro Football Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Harrison as the only receivers in NFL history with three consecutive 1,400-yard and 10-touchdown seasons. Thomas' 2014 campaign included a Broncos record of seven consecutive 100-yard receiving games and a 226-yard outing vs. Arizona in Week 5 that represented the highest single-game total in club history. Sanders was named to his first Pro Bowl in 2014 after posting the fourth-most receiving yards (1,404) and fifth-most catches (101) in league history by a player in his first year with a new team.
In 2013, Tolbert coached a unit that produced three players with 10-plus touchdowns, including Thomas (14), Eric Decker (11) and Wes Welker (10). He also coached two 1,000+ yard performers, Thomas (1,430) and Decker (1,288), as Denver scored 606 points, an NFL single season record that still stands. Thomas, whose 14 receiving scores tied a franchise record, earned his second Pro Bowl honor.
Tolbert's 2012 wide receiver group helped Denver's fifth-ranked passing offense score at least 30 points in a team-record 11 games. Third year wideouts Decker and Thomas became the youngest tandem in NFL history to record 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns each in a season.
While serving as the wide receivers coach in Buffalo in 2004, wide receiver Lee Evans led all NFL rookies with nine touchdown receptions and a 17.6 receiving average. In Tolbert's only season with the Cardinals (2003), wide receiver Anquan Boldin earned Offensive Rookie of the Year honors and set a then-NFL rookie record with 101 catches for 1,377 yards – a record that stood until the 2021 season (Jaylen Waddle, Dolphins, 102 catches).
Tolbert's first professional coaching experience was with the NFL's Bill Walsh Minority Internship Program. He first interned with the Lions during training camp in 1997 before interning again in 2001 with the Cardinals.
Tolbert began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Louisiana State in the spring of 1994 and worked in the same capacity at Northeast Louisiana that fall. He then went on to coach the wide receivers at Ohio University in the spring of 1995, before returning that fall to Northeast Louisiana, where he tutored the team's tight ends for three seasons.
After coaching tight ends at Auburn in 1998, Tolbert spent the next three years (1999-2001) as the wide receivers coach/recruiting coordinator at Louisiana-Lafayette. He then went on to coach the tight ends and work as the recruiting coordinator at the University of Florida in 2002 before transitioning to the NFL in 2003.
A Conroe, Texas native, Tolbert was a wide receiver and three-year letterman at LSU, where he graduated with both bachelor's and master's degrees.
Tolbert and his wife, Linda, have two daughters, Morgan and Madison.