After 4 straight non playoff seasons, winning the division and potentially making some noise in the playoffs WOULD be an obvious sign of improvement and compared to last 4 yrs, a "successful" football season. Especially considering a lot of people predicted a last place finish for this team.
The word "successful" is defined as, winning the Super Bowl.
Everything else on the winning side (at least 10 wins) is either just okay, pretty good or really good, depending on playoff appearance and wins.
Right now they've secured the "okay" status. If they get in and win one in the playoffs, that's "pretty good." If they get to the NFC title game, that's "really good" and if they win the Super Bowl, THAT is a "successful football season" as defined by Staubach.
It doesn't matter what was done in prior years, as a comparison to the current one. You would probably say a 9-7 finish was "successful" using your meter. I would not. I would say it is just "okay."
Nobody's arguing that 10-6 isn't a improvement over 8-8. But it does not represent a successful football season.