Damn your going to need that Xbox live. The CPU will struggle big time to run the ball without the updates... They had to patch it in because it was broken fresh out the package... I guess it's cool if they are still giving you a challenge but EA had a lot of guys angry around here when the game first came out and the CPU was playing like trash in CCM.
Just scout the skill attributes of the position of need you are looking for along with the physical skills like speed, acceleration, agility, strength, etc depending on the position you are looking at.