They're basically attempting a rebuild while trying to contend at the same time.
If you look at the defense, they've completely overhauled it. And once they move on from Milano, White, and Johnson it's basically a brand new defense from 3 years ago. But they lack a blue chip pass rusher, and I dunno how you manufacture that. You either pay 30M+ a year in FA or you find one in the draft, and those guys generally don't slip past the top 15.
Meanwhile we now have 3 highly talented players at both corners spots and a safety spot, a good but not great llinebacker, a borderline elite 3T, a highly talented 1T who's just a rookie, and a pretty good run DE in Groot. They add a safety, a quality run defender backer, and hope Taron gets healthy/rejuvenated (he's only 29) and you got a good defense.
Offensively, they've completed their rebuild of their OLine. Their ages are 31, 28, 28, 25, 27 from Left to Right. Their TEs going forward are 26 and 24. Their stud RB is 26.
Truth is they're trying to attempt something that's insanely hard. I mean the Texans have an elite defense. Meanwhile the Texans defense has a top 3 pick, a top 3 pick, an elite DE free agent, two high quality FA DTs, a top 3 pick at CB, a 2nd round pick at CB, and a 3rd round pick at Safety.