Last summer the San Francisco 49ers attempted to sign Peyton Manning before settling on Alex Smith as their quarterback.  Smith got off to a tremendous start this year, leading the 49ers to a 6-2 record and ranking third in the NFL in passer rating.

Throughout all of that, there was almost no talk about Colin Kaepernick taking over the starting job under center.  But Kaepernick is one confident individual and I'm willing to bet that Kaepernick thought he'd be leading the 49ers into the playoffs all along.

After all, even as a fourth-grader Kaepernick made the bold prediction that he'd become San Francisco's QB.  Check out this motivational letter he wrote to himself:

In case you can't read that, it says:

"i'm 5ft 2 inches, 91 pounds. good athlete. i think in 7 years i will be between 6ft to 6ft 4inches 190 pounds. i hope i go to a good college in faith. then go to the pros and play on the niners or the packers even if they aren't good in seven years. my friends are jason, kyler, leo, spencer, mark and jacob. sincerely colin"

Sources: @BryanAGraham, Deadspin, SB Nation