Dan Pompei

So the Minnesota Vikings are ambling around on the road to nowhere, and this quarterback falls out of the sky.

Next thing you know, they are 10-1 and on the road to somewhere every team wants to go.

Now, it is not every day when Brett Favre falls from the heavens. In fact, what has happened with Favre and the Vikings is almost unprecedented.

There are other examples in the league of great fits — players like Randy Moss, Drew Brees and Cedric Benson have helped change the fabric of their new teams. But none of their acquisitions was as impossibly perfect as Favre to the Vikings.

“I’ve never seen anything close to this,” one NFC personnel director said. “It was a totally unique situation. It couldn’t have been a better fit from the standpoint of personnel and the standpoint of scheme. He could coach that offense. He knew the division. The Vikings had everything in place but him.”

When the Packers dumped Favre last summer, they took precautions to make sure he wouldn’t come back to haunt them — forcing the Jets to agree not to trade him to a team from the NFC North.

But the clouds that began to gather last season over the Jets were the beginning of a perfect storm for the Vikings.

First, Favre injures his biceps tendon. His performance suffers. The Jets change coaches, and decide to part ways with an old, injured Favre. They can’t trade him so they cut him.

Slideshow   Contender or pretender? Evan Silva separates which teams could reach the Super Bowl and which ones have no shot. NBC Sports

There isn’t much of a market for Favre. “The fact that he’s 40-years-old scared everyone,” the personnel director said. “We won’t look at anyone who is 35 normally. But he’s a freak, a one in a million.”

Favre decides to retire. Then he changes his mind.

His arm heals. He joins a team that runs the same offense he ran for most of his career in Green Bay. He has probably the most talented surrounding cast he ever played with, and the word is he won’t have to do the heavy lifting in Minnesota.

But he doesn’t mind it. And he begins to play some of the best football of his life, making a case for a fourth most valuable player award.

“As you see, he’s playing as good as he did when he was young,” Vikings running back Adrian Peterson said. “It makes a big difference. He’s changed our whole offense. He got so many more guys involved, from tight ends to receivers. Guys who haven’t caught many balls since I’ve been here are catching it now. He’s spreading it around and making this offense dynamic.”

There isn’t another player in the NFL who could have fit in with the Vikings like Favre did. Not Manning. Not Brady. Not Brees. And there is not another team in the NFL that Favre could have improved anywhere near as much as he improved the Vikings.

Said Vikings coach Brad Childress, “Buddy Ryan’s favorite line according to [Vikings assistants] Les Frazier and Karl Dunbar, who played for him, was this: ‘Your greatest ability is availability.’ The fact he was available is what was most important to us.”

Also on NBCSports.com Beyond the Arc: No. 11 Mich. St. takes big step forward Chandler: Jeremy Lin was special even in 8th grade What NFC teams need this offseason  |  And AFC DeMarco: Dodgers could become a contender Follow us on Twitter: @NBCSports  |  And Facebook

Whether Favre is the final piece of the puzzle for the Vikings remains to be seen. But through 11 games, he has been the most important piece.

The Vikings are so happy to have him they almost feel as if someone with greater powers is looking out for them.

Said Childress, “I definitely believe that, always.”