I think that every team around the league who was even remotely interested in finding a decent kicker was watching the outcome of the Lutz vs Grupe competition. The reason is because there was likely going to be a quality kicker that was going to become available for free right after the cutdowns were officially posted. Frankly I believe that the Saints had a slightly better chance of getting compensation for Lutz than for Grupe simply because of the 'unknown reliability' associated with Grupe.
The Saints seemed to like Grupe better than Lutz for more than just the salary cap issues. Our coaches truly believe that Grupe will perform better than Lutz in the months and years ahead. Of course they may be wrong in that assessment. However, Lutz was going to be released. Had the Broncos waited for the official release the Saints would have gotten nothing for the player that Sean Payton is hoping can be a big improvement to his kicking game. Thus the Saints decided to trade Lutz for the 7th round pick rather than let the Broncos get the same guy for free just a few hours later.
Yes, it would have been nice to get much greater compensation for Lutz. But that wasn't going to happen. No team... not even the one that ended up with him, was going to trade more than the 7th round pick for Lutz services. At this time it seems to have been a good deal for both teams. Especially for the team who was planning to let him walk anyway.