Football Operations

Tyke Tolbert is in his first year as wide receivers coach for the Denver Broncos after being named to that position on Jan. 17, 2011.

Since joining the NFL ranks in 2003, he has instructed the wide receiver position with three different teams, collecting eight years of NFL experience.

Tolbert spent the 2010 season coaching under John Fox in Carolina, preceded by six seasons with Buffalo (2004-09) and one year with Arizona (2003).

Under Tolbert’s tutelage, Bills wide receiver Lee Evans became one of the most productive receivers in team history. Evans led all NFL rookies in 2004 with nine touchdown receptions and a 17.6-yard average per catch. After finishing second in the NFL with seven receptions for 40-plus yards in 2005, Evans continued to improve under Tolbert in 2006, amassing a team-record 265 yards receiving on 11 catches with two touchdowns in Week 11.

Tolbert coached NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Anquan Boldin with the Cardinals in 2003, helping him become the only rookie to make the Pro Bowl that season. Boldin set an NFL rookie record with 101 catches while posting the secondmost receiving yards (1,377) by a rookie in league history.

He gained his first professional coaching experience by participating in the NFL’s Minority Internship Program during training camps with Detroit (1997) and Arizona (2001).

Tolbert coached for eight seasons at the collegiate level before joining the NFL ranks. He began his college coaching career as a graduate assistant at Louisiana State in the spring of 1994 and Northeast Louisiana in the fall of 1994. He moved on to coach wide receivers at Ohio in the spring of 1995, before returning to Northeast Louisiana in the fall of 1995, where he tutored the team’s tight ends for three seasons. In 1998, Tolbert was hired as the tight ends coach at Auburn. He became the wide receivers coach/recruiting coordinator at Louisiana-Lafayette for three seasons (1999-2001). Tolbert served as the tight ends coach/recruiting coordinator at Florida in 2002, before making the jump to the NFL the following season.

Tolbert was a three-year letterman at LSU, where he played wide receiver. A native of Conroe, Texas, he graduated from LSU with bachelor and master degrees. He and his wife, Linda, have two daughters, Morgan and Madison.