Saints Let Bush Gauge Interest Elsewhere

New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush has experienced an offseason full of headlines. Now, according to a Yahoo! Sports report, the Saints gave him permission in February to gauge his value with other clubs. Reportedly, Bush expects to be playing in a different uniform next season.

Bush and agent Joel Segal were told that a number of teams would be interested in paying him handsomely, or at least more than the Saints have apparently been willing to offer at this point. That is one of the reasons that Bush has made contradictory statements about his future in New Orleans and didn’t participate in offseason workouts with Saints players.

For the record, Jason Cole of Yahoo sports has reported several things about Bush in that past that Reggie denied. Bush was in New Orleans last month and claimed he wanted to be a member of the Saints for his entire career.

The Dolphins, Steelers, Giants, Eagles, and Seahawks, are the 5 teams cited as willing to pay "handsome" money to acquire Bush's services.

Bush is scheduled to make an $11.8 million base salary in 2011. He has acknowledged that the Saints want him to restructure. It's widely believed the Saints want to drop his salary by over 50%.