Franchise setup questions

[tinpanalley]

I play Madden (PC) to play a very simple full control Season using Franchise mode, the only mode that permits this. I turn everything I can turn off, off. I hate progression, player improvement, player mood, what they had for breakfast, whether they feel depressed today, etc etc etc. I just want an experience like what we used to get from NFL games with a Season mode years ago. I was able to do this pretty thoroughly in Madden 20. No injuries, no transactions, just the season schedule and stat tracking.

Questions:
1. The thing I can't seem to figure out is what I need to do in 22 to get the rosters to not change after Preseason. Can I just cut all teams to 53 players before Preseason? Will that make them stay untouched when Preseason ends instead of the CPU going and cutting and signing players all over the league? (Yes, this even happens when you control all teams). MLB The Show permits this. If you cut every team down to a 25 man roster, when you go from Spring Training to the Season the lineups don't get messed up.
2. I want to see the results at halftime, but I can't do that if I control all teams. Any way to give the CPU control of the other teams but not let the CPU do ANYthing to the teams at all?
3. Assuming, if I cut the teams down to a specific 53-man size and the game does freeze the teams from making transactions, is there a program/editor I can use on PC to do moves rather than doing it in-game where the menus are slower?

Thanks for any help.