In Kansas City, Herm Edwards’s wait for a resolution must feel interminable. Carl Peterson is already gone and the search is on for a new general manager, who will almost certainly want input on who should be the coach. But with no hire on the horizon, Edwards is in the agonizing position of beginning off-season preparations with no assurance he will be part of the team much longer.

The St. Louis Rams have started their coaching search and Jim Haslett is among the candidates, reportedly even getting a letter of support from his players. But the team’s somnolent finish after winning two games when Haslett first took over from Scott Linehan cannot help, and so Haslett will join the rest of the state of Missouri in the waiting game.

Tom Cable might have gotten the Raiders to beat just enough teams, and just enough of the ones Al Davis hates (Denver and Tampa Bay, with Jon Gruden) to hold on to the job.

Hanging over all this carnage are the golden boys of the hiring season: Cowher and New England’s vice president for player personnel, Scott Pioli. Everybody wants them. Nobody knows if they will leave their current jobs, but one thing is certain: they will get a vote of confidence, no matter where they land.

Playing to the End

Last year the Giants charmed the N.F.L. by playing all-out in their meaningless regular-season finale against the Patriots. The Giants, with their starters playing the whole game, gave the Patriots a scare on the way to a perfect regular season, and they gave themselves a shot in the arm that energized them throughout their playoff run. It was a monument to pure competition and a lesson in how to build momentum. But on Sunday the N.F.L. saw the frightening flip side of that decision. The Steelers played their starters in the meaningless finale against the Browns. And near the end of the first half quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was slammed to the ground. He spent at least 10 minutes there, before being removed on a back board with a concussion.

The Steelers have a bye in the first round and Coach Mike Tomlin did not want his starters to get rusty, so he played all but two of them (both were injured). But Roethlisberger has been banged up much of the season, and now the Steelers will spend the bye week sweating out the concussion. Fans have seen what happens when teams rest their starters too long before the playoffs, only to be unable to regain their rhythm when the action starts again. It happened to the Colts in years past (on Sunday Peyton Manning played one series in a meaningless game against the Titans) but now fans are seeing what drives such caution.

Still, with the initial prognosis that Roethlisberger will be available for the playoffs, Tomlin was satisfied with the dominating victory over the Browns. “It was a productive effort,” he said.