Matthew Stafford, Philip Rivers Proving the Importance of Quarterback Mechanics

Nothing is more powerful in sports than natural talent.

It can lead players to prestigious individual accolades and teams to world championships. From an NFL perspective, at the quarterback position—arguably the most difficult position in athletics—just ask Peyton Manning, John Elway and Aaron Rodgers.

It can also lead to underwhelming play and consistent failure.

Just ask Ryan Leaf, JaMarcus Russell and Tim Couch. When it comes to playing signal-caller in the NFL, your talent can't get to to you. I've never been there, but playing quarterback at the professional level seems pretty hard, don't you think?

Talent can't make you believe it's too easy. Talent always has to be fostered by the right mindset, and most importantly, proper technique and sound mechanics. 

This season, we've witnessed a select group of rather talented quarterbacks let their talent get in the way of potentially vast achievement. 

Matthew Stafford, the 24-year-old Detroit Lions signal-caller, has significantly regressed from a masterful 41-touchdown, 5,038-yard 2011 campaign, a stat line that drastically helped his club go 10-6 and make the playoffs for the first time since the 1999 season. 

An abundance of aspects beyond Stafford's control have contributed to the Lions 2-4 start this year. But his disappointing lack of production through seven games and sporadic breakdowns in his throwing mechanics have been extremely disconcerting. 

Stafford is in the upper echelon of NFL quarterbacks in terms of arm strength and has a compact and traditional throwing motion. Due to that, he isn't afraid to fire a rocket over the middle on a 15-yard dig into tight coverage or let one fly 60-yards down the field to Calvin Johnson—he has natural skill and tenacity that, really, can't be taught or gained through physical training. 

The gun-slinging confidence born from his prolific arm strength is part of the reason why he was so dynamic last season. 

This year, he hasn't been able to get away with unnecessary side-armed throws and tosses made down the field off his back foot. 

Against the Chicago Bears, a game that, frankly, the Lions could have won, Stafford missed on numerous targets because of somewhat lackadaisical footwork.

On a fourth quarter sideline toss to Calvin Johnson, take a look at the way Detroit's quarterback actually stepped to his left and had the majority of his weight on his back leg when he slung the ball downfield.

Far from technically sound.  

The ball sailed and was too far ahead of Megatron for the talented receiver to make a play. The ball fell incomplete.

Sometimes, Stafford accurately finds his pass-catchers when essentially leaning back upon firing, but flat feet and transitioning weight from front to back is certainly far from good practice.  

It's something Stafford's done for most of his quarterback-playing career—even dating back to his days at Georgia—and is a bad habit that pops up on occasion for some of the game's better quarterbacks, as well. 

San Diego Chargers franchise guy Philip Rivers has fallen into the dangerous tendency in 2012. He's a quarterback with an unorthodox release, one that hasn't been an issue for him throughout his time in the the NFL. But he has gotten himself into a fair amount of trouble when neglecting to focus on the intricacies of weight shift and footwork when throwing the football. 

To put the finishing touch on the now infamous collapse against Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos in Week 6, Rivers' laziness led to the loss of a great deal of velocity on an out-route to Eddie Royal that ended with a Chris Harris interception and subsequent touchdown. 

Pretty careless, right?

Jay Cutler is another prime offender of this technical mishap, and not surprisingly, he, too, has a cannon for an arm that oftentimes allows him to get away with an out of sync lower half. 

However, a lot of his interceptions and under-thrown passes come when he fades away. 

Mike Vick has a propensity to do the same. Fans in Philadelphia are all too familiar with the way Vick throws while drifting back in some instances.

Not as talented quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick makes the majority of his mistakes when he's not able or simply fails to step into his throws—pretty obvious, right? 

Sheer talent and lazy mechanics will battle each other within all NFL quarterbacks forever, but Stafford, Rivers, Cutler and a few others are demonstrating how vital correct mechanics really are at the pro ranks. 

Follow @ChrisTrapasso