True, but in that case other teams could've made offers to Bush, which could've ended up (artificially) increasing his market worth, which in turn could've caused him to sign elsewhere or Miami having to offer him more contract-wise than the calculated worth of a given draft pick is to that franchise.

So, all in all, I think it was a good deal for MIA as well as for the Saints. And I think that if there's someone who lost in that deal it would be Bush himself, but that is hard to estimate because he never entered the FA market and so we can never know what his market value would've been.

If you look at it from that standpoint - the Saints franchise owe gratitude toward Bush for handling the situation as he did, nevermind what he has said since in the media.