Don't tell Dez Bryant he's old. The 27-year-old wide receiver doesn't want to hear it.

But for rookies Dak Prescott (23) and Ezekiel Elliott (21), Bryant has become the older brother.

Entering his seventh NFL season, Bryant is now the veteran giving out advice.

What has he been telling Prescott and Elliott?

"Be relaxed," Bryant said during a CBS 11 interview from the sidelines Thursday night. "Come in and do what you've been doing. Be monsters. Take advantage of this opportunity. Be great. Make your mark. It can only get better for those two. They fittin' to come in and do some damage."

With Tony Romo out for an extended period of time, younger players looking for advice from Bryant are going to get this message: establish dominance from the first play.

According to Bryant, that's exactly what Elliott did in his preseason debut last week in Seattle. The fourth overall pick challenged veteran Pro Bowl safety Kam Chancellor on several first-quarter runs.

"That's something I already knew he was going to do," Bryant said. "Once I seen him get in Chancellor's face, I knew he was ready. It got me hype. I wish I was there on the sidelines. I probably would've ran off the sidelines and got in Chancellor's face as well."

Having Elliott and the NFL's best offensive line means the Cowboys are going to run the ball early and often. But when teams try to take that away, Prescott will need to find the open receiver in the passing game.

Bryant, Jason Witten, Terrance Williams, Cole Beasley and Brice Butler are looking forward to those opportunities.

"They're going to try to see how real Dak really is," Bryant said. "Once they line me up one-on-one, they're going to see how real Dak really is because I'm going to come through for him. When they start to double me, there goes Terrance, there goes Beasley, there goes Wit, there goes Brice.

"You can just pick your poison. You can have it however you want. We ready to go."

Twitter: @jonmachota

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