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Liberty CB Walt Aikens visiting Cincinnati Bengals

Aikens has also visited Jaguars, Dolphins, Chiefs, Buccaneers, Bills, worked out for Cowboys, Falcons, Jaguars.

Liberty CB Walt Aikens (G.M. Andrews/AP)
Liberty CB Walt Aikens (G.M. Andrews/AP)

Liberty cornerback Walt Aikens ended his seeing under the radar of many NFL scouts and GMS, but he turned enough heads at Senior Bowl practices in January to make them go to the tape and see a potential diamond in the rough.

The 6-1, 205-pound Aikens should have plenty of appeal to NFL teams because of his size. Before he was a small-school prospect, he played at Illinois before transferring to Liberty.

After a good showing at the Senior Bowl, Aikens put on a show at his Pro Day that saw him record times of 4.37 and 4.39 seconds in the 40-yard dash and notch a 35-inch vertical leap and a 7.12 three-cone drill.

Now, Aaron Wilson of the National Football Post reports the Bengals are one of several teams bringing in Aikens for a workout this week:

Liberty cornerback Walt Aikens is visiting the Indianapolis Colts today followed by visits to the Green Bay Packers and the Cincinnati Bengals, according to a league source.

A potential third-round draft pick, Aikens has a total of 10 visits and six private workouts.

He's also visited the Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins, Kansas City Chiefs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Buffalo Bills and has worked out privately for the Dallas Cowboys, Atlanta Falcons and the Jaguars.

Aikens and his agent are confident he’ll be drafted, which would make him the first Liberty player drafted since Rashad Jennings went to Jacksonville in the seventh round of the 2009 draft.

The Bengals are in need of a cornerback, but don't necessarily need one to come in and play immediately. With Leon Hall, Terence Newman, Adam Jones, Dre Kirkpatrick and Adam Jones on the roster, the Bengals can afford to wait and take a developmental guy like Aikens and allow him to slowly adjust to the NFL game.