- "Kevin Gilbride will be selling insurance in two years."
- "Some say the 46 is just an eight-man front. That’s like saying Marilyn Monroe is just a girl."
- "QBs are overpaid, overrated, pompous bastards and must be punished."
- "He looks like a reject guard from the USFL, he's so damn fat."
- "Trade him for a six-pack. It doesn’t even have to be cold."
- "Football kickers are like taxi cabs. You can always go out and hire another one."
- "Offense my butt. Our offense is for Randall [Cunningham] to make five big plays and we'll win."
- "If you listen to the fans, you'll be sitting up there with them."
- "It was so easy my wife could have made them, and she didn't even know these guys."
- "We might have the worst bunch of guys together we've ever seen as a football team. I don't know what anybody else has, but I'd trade mine with anybody, sight unseen."
"We hardly ever spoke. I'd just put the game plan on his secretary's desk and she'd put it on his desk. Not that he understood much of it."
Ryan was not a fan of Bears rookie William "Refrigerator" Perry, famously calling him "a wasted draft choice."
During training camp before the 1985 season, Ryan said, "He's an overweight kid and a hell of a nice kid, but you know, I got twin boys at home that are nice kids, and I don't want 'em playing for me."
After he was accused of having his Eagles players try to intentionally hurt Cowboys kicker Luis Zendejas, who Ryan had cut in Philadelphia earlier in the season.
"Why would I try to hurt a kicker, who can't kick?''
On Cowboys coach Tom Landry after running up the score on the Cowboys by having quarterback Randall Cunningham fake a kneel down and throw deep late in the game.
"He opened the can of worms, I closed it.''
On Eagles first-round draft pick and often-injured defensive tackle Kevin Allen.
"I don't know what his status is. I don't even know who he is."
After Eagles running back Herman Hunter walked out of camp but returned a day later.
“He probably checked the job market out there and found there wasn’t a lot of demand for return specialists that won’t block.”
After beating Dallas, 21-20, on a last-second pass from Randall Cunningham to Calvin Williams.
"They (the Cowboys) know we're going to beat them, they just don't know how.''
On cutting players
"It's hard when you have to tell a guy you've known for eight or nine years that this is it, but I've told those guys, too. That's tough. Rooks, we don't even know them, so it's not very tough."
