[maademperor]

You simmed it until the wins/losses for each team mirrored real life? lotta re-loading there and trying again, eh?
A few things:

1) paying top 5 draft pick money for a DT in this game is not gonna pay dividends for you, ditto for DE unless you manually control him.
2) you cannot trade future draft picks in this game so your trade scenario is a no go
3) CPU defenses very, very rarely ever double team anyone in my experience so signing a mediocre wideout to reap that benefit is unlikely, better to have speed at the slot to beat the coverage on drags and slants.

Also beefing up the d-line/TE for some decent run blocking is a good move, I had some excellent years with Smith after doing the same, turning in RB of the year, OPY, and pro bowl appearances 2 years straight then I had to franchise and trade him cause he didnt want to re-sign.