Pittsburgh Steelers rookie Chase Claypool on Wednesday seemed to have taken a shot at the San Francisco 49ers' decision to use pads in their Thursday practices. Niners coach Kyle Shanahan caught wind of the comments and had a few things to say himself.

Shanahan appeared to be on the defensive, as he attempted to provide a bit of an explanation about his practice philosophy (via Alex Didion of NBC Sports).

“I mean, the third party from another team, I wouldn't really get much into, but yeah, I don't mind talking about that. Some people practice with pads on Wednesdays. Some people do on Thursdays. I believe guys are too sore on Wednesdays, not recovered from the game. I don't even keep the pads on for all Thursday. So, we keep them on for the first two periods of practice, a pass protection period and a run period. So, I feel pretty good about that. I think we do it as little as anyone in the NFL.”

While Shanahan initially opened by saying that he did not want to get much into Claypool's comments, he still went ahead and provided a relatively lengthy explanation to address the same.

Claypool sounded perplexed on Wednesday when he spoke about the 49ers practicing with pads.

“I was talking to my friend on the Niners and they’re still wearing full pads on Thursdays. We haven’t done that since camp, so having a coach that understands how long the season is, the wear and tear on your body, it’s super helpful for getting you through the season and getting you to be able to play well in the playoffs.”

Whatever the case may be, Shanahan does not appear to have any plans in switching up his practice formats, even though they have been struggling lately. Even more so now that he's been called out publicly about it.