Ten things we learned: Peyton Manning's Broncos have leg up on Tom Brady's Patriots

• Patriots may struggle to punch a Super Bowl return trip
• Guess who's ready to join the 5,000-yard passing club?
• Though many young quarterbacks are thriving, several have plenty of work to do

Now that you've slept on the scores and digested the stats, here's an in-depth look at Week 16 of the NFL season. Take your time reading it before trying to sort out the NFC playoff picture while you finish up your Christmas shopping.

Ten things we learned

1. Richard Sherman isn't as crazy as you thought he was a few weeks ago when the Seattle Seahawks cornerback told USA TODAY Sports that Russell Wilson is "probably a little better than" Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III.

Wilson has plenty of work left to overcome the bias against his lack of height and third-round draft status in relation to the top two overall picks, and we're not saying we agree with Sherman just yet, but the point we're making is Sherman's statement isn't as ridiculous as it sounded three weeks ago. In the four games that began with the Seahawks' comeback victory over the Chicago Bears, Wilson's numbers (62.8% completion rate, 204.3 passing yards per game, 51 rushing yards per game, 11 total touchdowns) are better than Griffin's (62%, 201 passing yards per game, four touchdowns, 36 rushing yards per game, four total touchdowns) and Luck's (46.7%, 244.5 passing yards per game, eight total touchdowns).

"Russell played like crazy tonight," Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said after Sunday's 42-13 win over the San Francisco 49ers.

Not just Sunday. Every day for the past four weekends, with one more to come before the votes for offensive rookie of the year are cast.

2. Something isn't quite right about this New England Patriots team.

There's no good reason why they should've had to battle back from an early deficit against the Jacksonville Jaguars and then, when they finally woke up, struggle to put that team away. The Pats have had recent blowouts of the Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts and New York Jets, which should impress us enough to put a lot of faith in them. But it's these squeakers against the Jags and Miami Dolphins, as well as the early hole they dug in the loss to the 49ers that has us thinking this team is far too inconsistent and slow to make it back to the Super Bowl.

3. Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos have made it look incredibly easy. They have 12 victories, none by less than a touchdown. It's been almost boring for outside observers.

"Boring for who?" Manning said at his postgame press conference when the issue was raised. "You bored?"

Incredible. This defense continues to pound opponents into the ground, Manning might've stolen a few more votes from Adrian Peterson for comeback player of the year Sunday, the Indianapolis Colts could be a playoff opponent and Manning has a shot to return to the Super Bowl in his hometown, New Orleans. This is all not boring.

Not by a long shot.

4. Leslie Frazier has turned in one of the best coaching jobs in the league.

(That's our way of saying he should garner some coach of the year consideration without throwing that around too often.) Frazier's team could've easily looked at its final two games — at Houston and home vs. the Green Bay Packers — and said, "Hey, it's just not going to be our year to make the playoffs," and most people would've understood.

But Frazier, who reportedly stood up to disgruntled wide receiver Percy Harvin before the team put him on injured reserve, got his guys believing they could take on the Texans and beat the No. 1 seed in the AFC. They did — and without Adrian Peterson doing all the work.

Now the tricky part — getting them to believe they can pull off the back end with a playoff-clinching win Sunday over the Packers, who are trying to nail down a bye.

5. Tony Romo might throw for 5,000 yards.

No, really, did you know that? Have you been paying attention to Romo's season? It might seem ridiculous to say the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys hasn't gotten enough recognition, but that might actually be the case. Romo's slinging it and Dez Bryant's dominance of the New Orleans Saints' Patrick Robinson on Sunday are why we like the Cowboys' chances of taking the NFC East in Sunday's meeting with the Washington Redskins.

6. Marvin Lewis has to work on his in-game decisions before the postseason.

You can't send Josh Brown onto the field to try a 56-yarder late in a tie game at Heinz Field. You just can't. (And, no, Brown didn't convert.) Lewis thanked his players for bailing him out, as he should've.

"I made decisions to try to win the game," Lewis said. "It kind of backfired on me a little bit."

But this Pittsburgh Steelers team wasn't nearly as opportunistic as some of Mike Tomlin's squads from years past (as they proved Sunday and also the previous week in a loss to the Cowboys), so Lewis got away with it. Looking at the potential opponents in the postseason, it's clear his team won't live to overcome such a mental mistake.

7. The St. Louis Rams had better think twice about letting Steven Jackson walk after this season.

In seven games since the bye, the veteran free-agent-to-be running back has amassed 100 total yards or scored a touchdown in all but one game. He's led an offensive attack that could be a lot better once the young receivers on the roster get an offseason to get comfortable. And when Jackson gets 10 more yards rushing, he'll join Barry Sanders, Curtis Martin, Emmitt Smith and LaDainian Tomlinson as the only players to rush for 1,000 yards in eight consecutive seasons. Of that group, only Tomlinson failed to crack 1,000 yards after turning 30 (though that's because he split carries with Shonn Greene in 2010 with the New York Jets), so there's no reason to think Jackson can't keep it going into the future, especially if it's with a Jeff Fisher-coached team that's won four of five heading into Week 17 while showing some promise for the future.

8. Jake Locker and Josh Freeman should be extremely thankful the upcoming class of quarterbacks is considered a weak one.

Both players are still very early in their careers and deserve a shot to prove their worth as starters, but they're also giving their respective teams reason to at least bring in competition. Locker was a dreadful 13-for-30 for 140 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions in Sunday's 55-7 loss to the Packers, though the Tennessee Titans' battered offensive line didn't help matters by allowing seven sacks. Freeman threw four interceptions against the Rams. That's eight picks of Freeman in his last two games. He had eight total in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' first 13 games.

9. Nick Foles must get rid of the football sooner.

That was the lesson of the day for the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Sunday against the Redskins. He had a fumble late in the first quarter that could've been avoided if he'd thrown the ball away. And on the game's final play, he held it, held it, held it, held it until he had to chuck it toward the line of scrimmage while Washington's Stephen Bowen tackled him. It was ruled intentional grounding, and the game was over. Foles, who showed plenty of promise in throwing for 345 yards, did a nice job in the Eagles' loss to the Bengals 11 days ago of protecting the ball with two hands while scrambling. He was not nearly as wise against Washington.

10. The New Orleans Saints have an awful lot of which to be proud.

The bounty situation contributed to an 0-4 start. Since then, they're 7-4 with a chance to finish 8-8. Drew Brees, who threw for 446 yards in Sunday's overtime victory at Dallas, has done a heckuva job leading this team, which suffers from a severe lack of talent on defense. </p><p>"We're never going to let anybody tell us that we're not playing for something. Even though it's not the playoffs for the 2012 football season, we're playing for something," Brees told reporters. "Even if that's building a foundation for future teams, I believe that what we accomplish now can carry over somehow, some way."