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Without coming right out and criticizing the Chargers, Philip Rivers strongly suggested that the team should have handed the Eric Weddle situation better.

The Chargers put Weddle on injured reserve this week, ending his season a week early and almost certainly ending his tenure as a Charger. Rivers, who has been Weddle’s teammate in San Diego for all nine years of Weddle’s career, said he wishes the team would’ve given Weddle the time to see if he was healthy enough to play in Sunday’s finale.

“I hate it that he’s not going to be out there for his last one and finish this season with all of us,” Rivers said, via ESPN. “That’s definitely tough. You don’t want to see it end that way for him. He’s played through a lot of things over his career. And so I would have loved to see him have the chance to get to Friday or Saturday, and see if he could go. But that didn’t happen because I think he would have done all he could to be out there with us one last time.”

Weddle sure seems healthy enough to play, as he went off to the side and ran wind sprints while the Chargers were practicing, even though the team says it shut him down because of a groin injury. By running in full view of reporters, Weddle may have been sending a message as he and the Chargers continue to butt heads. If the Chargers put Weddle on injured reserve for reasons other than an injury, that would be a violation of NFL rules. The league may join Rivers in not appreciating how the situation has been handled.