Tyke Tolbert, a 17-year NFL coaching veteran, is in his third season coaching the Giants' wide receivers, a position he previously held with Arizona, Buffalo, Carolina, and Denver.
In 2019, Tolbert coached a determined and productive group that did not have a receiver play all 16 games. The Giants had four different receivers with at least 100 yards in a game (wideouts Sterling Shepard, Darius Slayton and Golden Tate and tight end Evan Engram). That had not happened since 2012, when the 100-yard receivers were Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz, Domenik Hixon and Ramses Barden.
Slayton missed the first two games with a hamstring injury but had one of the finest seasons by a rookie wide receiver in franchise history. The fifth-round draft choice from Auburn led the team with 740 receiving yards and eight touchdowns and was fourth with 48 catches. Slayton is among the top five rookies in Giants history in receptions, yards and touchdown catches.
Shepard missed six games with a concussion but started all 10 games in which he played and led the Giants with 57 catches. His 576 receiving yards were third on the team and he scored three touchdowns.
Tate missed a total of five games and finished second among wide receivers and third on the Giants with 49 catches. He was second on the team in both receiving yards (676) and touchdowns catches (six).
In 2018, Tolbert led a group of wideouts that overcame injuries and welcomed newcomers during the season to be consistently productive. 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. Shepard started all 16 games and finished second among the wideouts with career-high totals of 66 catches (one more than his rookie total in 2016) and 872 yards. He scored four touchdowns.
Prior to joining the Giants, Tolbert spent seven years with the Broncos, who won Super Bowl 50 in February 2016.
From 2012-16 one of Tolbert's Denver standouts, Demaryius Thomas, had at least 90 catches and 1,000 receiving yards in every year to join Pro Football Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison (5) and Torry Holt (6) as the only players to reach those marks in at least five consecutive seasons. Thomas was selected to the Pro Bowl in each of those seasons.
Tolbert was also instrumental in the continued development of Emmanuel Sanders, who signed with the Broncos in 2014, was selected to his first two Pro Bowls (2014, 2016) and produced 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. The previous season, Thomas (1,304 yards) and Sanders (1,135) turned in a productive year despite the Broncos using multiple starting quarterbacks.
Tolbert coached the NFL's top wide receiver tandem in 2014, when Thomas (111 catches, 1,619 yards, 11 touchdowns) and Sanders (101, 1,404, 9) combined for the most receptions (212) and receiving yards (3,023) by an NFL duo. Thomas' 1,619 yards set a franchise single-season record. The fifth-year pro 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, 10-touchdown seasons. Thomas' 2014 campaign included a team-record 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 (Thomas
– 14; Eric Decker – 11; Wes Welker – 10) along with two 1,000-yard performers (Thomas – 1,430; 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. Thomas and Decker became just the second pair of teammates (Cris Carter/Randy Moss, Minnesota, 1998-99) to post 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns each in consecutive seasons.
Denver'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 veteran Brandon Stokley became one of 10 players to post 40 receptions and five touchdowns after the age of 36.
Thomas and Decker emerged as solid targets under Tolbert's instruction in 2011, combining for
76 receptions for 1,163 yards (15.3-yard avg.) and 12 touchdowns in Denver's run-heavy offense led by quarterback Tim Tebow.
In Buffalo in 2004, Tolbert helped wide receiver Lee Evans lead all NFL rookies with nine touchdown receptions and a 17.6-yard average per catch.
In Tolbert's only season with the Cardinals in 2003, Anquan Boldin earned Offensive Rookie of
the Year honors and set an NFL-rookie record with 101 catches for 1,377 yards, the second most by a rookie in league history.
Tolbert's first professional coaching experience was in the NFL's Minority Internship Program with the Detroit Lions during training camp in 1997, and again in the Cardinals' camp in 2001.
Tolbert began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Louisiana State in the spring of 1994 and Northeast Louisiana that fall. He coached wide receivers at Ohio 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 served as the tight ends coach/recruiting coordinator at Florida in 2002, before making the jump to the NFL the following season.
A wide receiver, Tolbert was a three-year letterman at LSU. The Conroe, Texas native graduated from LSU with bachelor's and master's degrees. Tolbert and his wife, Linda, have two daughters, Morgan and Madison.
1994 Louisiana State University - graduate assistant
1994 Northeast Louisiana University - graduate assistant
1995 Ohio University - wide receivers
1995-97 Northeast Louisiana University - tight ends
1998 Auburn University - tight ends
1999-2001 University of Louisiana-Lafayette - wide receivers/recruiting coordinator
2002 University of Florida - tight ends/recruiting coordinator
2003 Arizona Cardinals - wide receivers
2004-09 Buffalo Bills - wide receivers
2010 Carolina Panthers - wide receivers
2011-17 Denver Broncos - wide receivers
2018-20 New York Giants - wide receivers
