by Jay Glazer

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As expected, the dreaded coaching Turk is sharpening his blade awaiting Black Monday, the day after the regular season ends. Drama has already heated up in several cities and it's our job to sift through what's real, what could happen and what is nothing but rumor or smokescreen. With that, let's take a stroll through the cities where seats are hot and either heating up or cooling off.

ST. LOUIS — The Kansas City Chiefs parted ways with their president/CEO and GM Carl Peterson this past week. But that's not the only executive in the Show Me State who's out the door before the season ends.

FOX Sports has learned that the Rams team president and general manager Jay Zygmunt will be out as early as Monday or Tuesday. It's been long believed that Zygmunt would not be with the team past 2008, but for him to leave prior to the end of the season is viewed as a surprise. It's unclear if Zygmunt is being fired or he is resigning, but it appears to be more mutual consent by both sides.

As for their head coaching situation, Rams ownership held high-level meetings early this past week discussing the team's future with several people within the organization. Right now it appears that VP Billy Devaney will have significant input on hiring the next coach. It should be noted that Devaney and current head coach Jim Haslett have a strong relationship.

Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan is a hot name here.

KANSAS CITY — Now that Peterson is out, what does that mean for the future of head coach Herm Edwards? Currently, long-time executive Denny Thum is serving as team president and general manager. However, that will change and the plan is to hire a GM, let him assess the team and have a very strong voice in who the team's head coach will be in 2009.

Thum is expected to be the team's new president after the Chiefs hire the GM. A long-time Chiefs executive, Thum is largely considered one of the smartest men in the league and has garnered tremendous respect among league executives for his undying loyalty to the late Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt.

Should the Chiefs job open, it will actually be viewed as a pretty good opening. They have loaded up on youngsters and Kansas City, in league circles, is considered a very, very attractive city to live in.

CLEVELAND — Name after name is being linked to the Cleveland Browns — some true, others not so much.

Bill Cowher? Yes, absolutely. The Browns would love to lure the Super Bowl winning coach to Cleveland with a blockbuster contract and full authority, but those close to Cowher are split on whether or not he actually makes that jump.

Marty Schottenheimer? False! Despite a recent report linking the former Browns, Chiefs and Chargers head coach to his old team, top-level brass has no interest in bringing him back for an encore. The more likely names to place here in case Cowher rebuffs their offer are Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels in a possible package with New England personnel guru Scott Pioli.

Spagnulo is this year's Jason Garrett, the crown jewel of assistant coaching prospects. Unlike Garrett from a year ago, however, Spagnuolo will likely take a head coaching post in the coming month or so. Loved by players, Spagnuolo has tremendous respect among his coaching peers. He also is as far from a politician as one can find in this league.

McDaniels and Pioli could be an interesting combination since Pioli has long been considered the pretty girl at the prom of NFL personnel people. However, to date he has shunned finally hitting the road. McDaniels led the NFL's most prolific offensive attack a year ago in the Patriots' record-breaking season.

SAN FRANCISCO — For over a year there has been rampant speculation that the 49ers would hire Seattle's Mike Holmgren in a Bill Parcells-type of position after this season. Doesn't look like that is going to happen. A more likely scenario is simply that Mike Singletary stays put as the team's head coach.

Sources say ownership is strongly leaning toward keeping him as their head coach and he will meet with team brass the a day or two after the season ends. Singletary, however, could make staff changes to bring in people he is more comfortable with than those left over from Mike Nolan's staff.

Their thought process is that Singletary already has seven games of head coaching experience and has fared well. Thus, he has a leg up on an assistant who will need some time to adjust to the position.

"One thing about him is he quickly learned from his mistakes," said one team source. "(Singletary) makes a mistake once and never repeats it. He's impressive."

UFC STAR MAKES REPEAT PERFORMANCE FOR FAVRE: Last year a certain incredibly suave NFL insider hooked up UFC Heavyweight king Randy "The Natural" Couture and the Green Bay Packers to give the team its pregame speech. The lure was Brett Favre, who is a HUGE fan of the legendary fighter.

Couture spent that weekend with head coach Mike McCarthy, Favre and others on the Packers, who then went out and thrashed the Raiders.

Favre, who has since kept in touch with Couture, reached out to him for a repeat performance. Saturday night in Seattle before the biggest game of the year for the Jets, Couture gave the Jets the team speech and was once again a huge hit among the players.

One of his main messages was that despite the Jets having their backs to the wall, they need to go out loose and have fun. He compared it to himself, who is often seen walking toward the cage smiling, appearing as if he's simply taking a mid-afternoon stroll. Basically, he keeps himself loose and if he can when grown men are allowed to knock his head off, they can too.