EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Justin Herbert was adamant throughout training camp that the Los Angeles Chargers offense will be a work in progress early in the season.

Starting with the bye week, however, the offense started to pick up and start to resemble what Chargers fans have been used to seeing since Herbert was drafted sixth overall in 2020.

A healthier Herbert and more practice time with his receivers opened up the vertical passing game. Entering Sunday’s game at Cleveland, Herbert has 540 yards passing in his last three games on throws of 10 yards or longer.

Herbert is 22 of 36 passing since the Chargers’ Week 5 bye. That’s quite a turnaround from the first four games when he was 8-for-24.

“I don’t think people understand the extent of what he was dealing with physically at the beginning of the year,” offensive coordinator Greg Roman said. “So as he gets healthier, you can see what a difference it makes. Number two, I think every week he’s getting more and more comfortable and mastering what we’re doing and understanding. In the last two weeks, we’ve only scratched the surface.”

Herbert missed two weeks of training camp with a plantar fascia injury in his right foot. He then suffered a high sprain in his right ankle in a Week 2 win at Carolina, affecting his mobility in losses to Pittsburgh and Kansas City. The ankle injury also meant Herbert missed full team training for two weeks.

Had this been Herbert’s second or third year in Roman’s offense, the time away might not have mattered as much. But with a new system and a relatively inexperienced cast of receivers, there was too much to quickly recover from.

“We had to change a tremendous amount of what we were doing to adapt,” Roman said. “You’re not going to sit there and talk about it at the time. You just have to do your best. But in the first year, that’s probably the worst case scenario you could want.”

The Chargers’ commitment to being balanced on offense hasn’t changed throughout the season. They called passing plays 51.4 percent of the time, their lowest rate through seven games since 2007, when it was 47.8 percent.

Despite the receivers’ relative inexperience, Herbert has not thrown an interception in his last five starts, which is the longest active streak in the league and one game shy of the franchise record.

Tight end Will Dissly has 13 of his 26 receptions over the past two games. Ladd McConkey was the first Chargers rookie wide receiver since 2010 to have a game with 100 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

Joshua Palmer, who has had a slow start to the season, has six receptions in the past two games, including a 45-yard catch last week.

Herbert could add another target this week as DJ Chark is set to play in his first game after being sidelined for two months with a groin injury.

Herbert is also a threat running the ball. His 38-yard scramble late in the first quarter against the Saints helped get the offense back on track.

“I think it’s all coming together slowly but surely. I know we’ve had some hiccups and a few injuries, but you can see what we can do when Justin’s healthy,” Palmer said. “Just the threat of him running the ball opens everything up.”

Coach Jim Harbaugh and Roman have preached a physical mentality, but the offense’s identity might best be described as flexibility. The unit has lacked that in recent seasons as it has ranked among the highest percentage of passing games.

“If we can be able to do everything, whether it’s being able to run the ball or throw the ball and have both. Make sure that’s a threat in itself and teams have to respect that,” Herbert said. “If we can get to that point as an offense, I think it opens up a lot of things.”

JK Dobbins is 10th in the league with 535 rushing yards and is making a strong bid for Comeback Player of the Year after missing most of last season with an Achilles injury. Dobbins has averaged just 3.2 yards per carry over his last five games, but has six carries of 12 yards or more.

The Chargers may need to lean more on the run game Sunday against a Browns defense with the fifth-lowest completion percentage allowed on throws of 10 yards or more (43.7 percent).