I don't think the Saints get to choose who he signs with and until we see the numbers we don't know if it was a cheap price or not.
He's certainly a big loss as he was great depth and a solid starter when called on, but the Saints also can't compete with what S.F. has to offer, namely a legitimate shot to win the Super Bowl. And, unfortunately, S.F. is so far ahead of us right now that they really aren't our competition. Our competition is our Division. Winning anything beyond that would be amazing, but not very likely until we build more talent.