because of all those long runes, but if guys like CJ, Julius, Armando, Carlisle, Dex, Cierre, Tate, Jafar, Gray, etc, etc were given the wide open lanes that Adams had on 99% of his long runs, they would have had the same or even better success.
Now Adams had other qualities that made him a better overall back than some of those names, but in terms of THE thing that had people thinking he was special or 1st round caliber, we've had lots of guys that could have run through those huge holes faster than he did. However, his top end was comparable to some of the fastest we've had.
I don't think we've seen enough yet to declare Dex the best, but he's up there.. going back a little further, I'd put em in this order: 1) CJ 2) JJ 3) Wood /Dex 4) Folston /Jafar 5) Adams
As far as Kelly with elite backs, my belief is simple...he doesn't really 'like' or properly value running the ball, so how would he ever really correctly handle someone who is elite at doing something he only does reluctantly.