Published: Saturday, November 21, 2009
Updated: Thursday, November 19, 2009 10:54 AM CST

ST. LOUIS (AP) — In three years as Beanie Wells’ teammate at Ohio State, James Laurinaitis guessed he tackled the running back three or four times at most in practice.

That was enough to make an impression on the St. Louis Rams’ rookie linebacker, who figures to get a lot more opportunities to bring down Wells Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. Four picks separated the two players in last April’s draft, with Wells going to Arizona on the 31st pick of the first round and Laurinaitis going to St. Louis on the second pick of the second round.

Laurinaitis says Wells was just two lockers down in the Ohio State dressing room. Laurinaitis’ scouting report off those three or four tackles: Wells has a nice stiff-arm, runs hard and is good at finishing plays.